Xmen Redefined
by enigmagirl2727
Summary: ...a couple of OCs and my favorite X-men, with plots all my own. Finally explained to near it's entirety. Good luck. Please R and R.
1. Introduction Part I

Disclaimer 1: Much as I would like to, I do not own the x-men. However, I do own Vampira, Stephen, Enigma, and any other characters that seem unfamiliar to you, because I made them up.

Disclaimer 2: The characters and mentioned events contained her are roughly from 1984 to 1991. I basically took all my favorite characters and events and squashed them into a time sequence that suited the events I created for my new characters. So if it doesn't seem accurate or up to date to you, I'm sorry. Otherwise, enjoy!

It was a perfectly normal day, as far as the x-men were concerned. Magneto was trying to take over the world again, the Juggernaut had been sighted in Boston, and mutant vampires were about to be killed by freaked out villagers in central Europe. As team leader, Nightcrawler decided to tackle the vampires first. It wasn't perhaps the most logical thing to do, but it sounded like the most interesting. Besides, he had a soft spot for people chased by mobs, seeing as that is exactly what happened to him not many years ago. He brought up the data about the two 'vampires' on Cerebro. 'While vampirism has been reported in this particular area for centuries, a mob has only recently formed to eradicate the problem. The riot was triggered by several vampiric killings in the surrounding villages' 'How exactly does this involve the x-men?' Kurt typed into the computer. He read the words that appeared on the screen 'One of the vampires is a mutant.' Aha! The clincher. The x-men always came to the aid of a fellow mutant in trouble, but was a force of evil that happened to be a mutant worth saving? Growing up in Germany Kurt knew the horrors of vampires. But he wouldn't know the truth until he got there. "Best round up the troops." Teleporting out of the office that Cerebro was housed in, Nightcrawler began to assemble the rest of his team.

"This isn't going well, Stephen!" Driani was getting scared. It wasn't the first time she had been chased by a mob, and she was fairly confident that nothing could happen to her or her lover, but fighting masses of angry villagers was never a pleasant experience. She had always lived on the edge, even back when she was mortal. Hiking alone along steep mountain trails, and activity strictly against her father's orders, had been her favorite past time. Knowing that one wrong step would be the end of her should have been frightening, but it only exhilarated her. However, hiking for fun and having people attempt to kill you were very different kinds of thrills. Not that she could blame the villagers who were currently throwing torches and rocks at her home. She had been somewhat...reckless during her last feeding. A semi-vampire like herself had three forms; her human form, a stronger and winged half human half bat form (which is capable of thought), and full out bloodsucking beast. When in her third form, Driani had no control over her actions. Thus the frequent deaths that resulted when she was unable to resurrect her consciousness from the depths of her alter ego, while not really her deeds, were still her fault. But try to reason with people that wanted to avenge a murder... "I am well aware of our situation, Driani!" Stephen's response to her statement jerked her from her musings. His harsh tone betrayed his fear. Both vampires were at the top of the highest tower in their citadel, but the humans below them where starting to climb the walls. Sheer will to survive against the frenzied swarm of hundreds may or may not be enough to keep Driani and Stephen alive, even with all their considerable powers. (Wait, you say? You think vampires can't be killed because they're immortal? Well they can, according to me. Immortality just means that they are impervious to disease, age, and most injuries. But as for a stake through the heart... Back to our story.) No, this wasn't going well at all...

"Hey, guys! We've got a mission! Quite fooling around and get into your uniforms!" Nightcrawler coaxed his teammates into abandoning their game of 'Try To Kill The Vicious Holographs' in the danger room. After they were prepared, he began to brief them in the hanger while they got the Blackbird ready. "What's it this time?" questioned the team's youngest member, Shadowcat. While filling his friends in on the mission he had discovered, Nightcrawler looked around at the mutants surrounding him. None of them were very happy people currently. Shadowcat and Colossus were no longer dating as a result of Colossus's falling in love with another girl, which would have left him happy and Kitty desolate if his lover hadn't died. As it was, they were both miserable. Rachel had fled the future to attempt to save humanity from their destructive fate, but instead of finding the past she knew she found herself in a different time line all together. A time line where her mother is dead and she doesn't exist. Rogue still hadn't mastered control of her mutation, and as a result she couldn't have physical contact with anyone. When both of Wolverine's true loves, Silver fox and Mariko, had died, Logan had been so miserable he temporarily left the x-men. He was currently somewhere in the Canadian wilderness. Jubilee had run away when she found out that he left. No one knew where she was. And with such dismal friends, how could Nightcrawler be happy? Besides, he himself was starting to lose his faith in god after his encounters with the Beyonder. No, they were not a happy group, but they tried their best to hide their feeling and continue with their task, saving mutants from humanity and humanity from whomever else threatened them. It wasn't easy, but somebody had to do it. "Okay, into the jet!" An hour later the x-men found themselves in one of the most difficult combat situations they had ever encountered.


	2. Introduction Part II

Disclaimer: I don't own the x-men or any other marvel characters. Duh! But I do own Driani and any other characters that aren't marvel-made. Copy them at your own peril. I mean it. They are my intellectual property and I do not take plagiarism lightly.

This was the end. She was sure of it now. Driani and Stephen had been fighting nonstop for over a week with a huge mob that was determined to kill them. Leaving the tower, they thought it would be easy to wipe out the fifty people who surrounded their castle. Hand to hand combat with mortals had seemed terribely simple at first, but eventually the crowds numbers swelled to the point that their wasn't any fighting space and they had fled back to the tower. The siege had lasted past the point that even a supremely powerful immortal could bear. The villagers were going to wear them out, and they had nearly succeeded...

For over eight hundred years Stephen's family had ruled Castle Vanqueri and the surrounding villages, and Stephen had ruled for the past five hundred years. One of Dracula's brides had done it as a joke. Stephen was not on speaking terms with any of the four of them since he had never quite forgiven them for taking away his mortality, but he enjoyed his powers. For four hundred he lived happily, ruling the inhabitants of his land by fear and killing sporadically so as not to arouse suspicion. Then he got lonely. Imagine his luck that a mere twenty-four years ago one of the first ever mutants had been born right on his estate! It was her particular mutation that drew Stephen to Driani. Her DNA not only gave her several vampiric talents like memory manipulation and superhuman strength, but also the ability to retain her humanity when blessed/cursed (depends on how you look at it) with a vampire's kiss. As such she was a semi-vampire, living only on blood and morphing into human/bat form, while not truly immortal and in a state of suspended aging. Once he had made her as close to a vampire as he could, she hated him. But she came around, as he knew she would, and grew to love him as much as he already loved her. They were so happy. They traveled the world together, Driani learning various fighting forms and languages as they went and Stephen picking up the newest sciences and literary achievements. When they had returned from their hundred year honeymoon, they realized that they couldn't stay in one place to long in case one of them slid too far into their inner beast and wasn't able to control their actions. But that revelation had come to late, hadn't it, Stephen thought wryly to himself. Because now Driani had gone a three-month killing spree that had left dozens dead. When she finally came to, not only had the superstitious villagers figured out their secret, they had decided to do something about them. That 'something' came in the form of killing them.

****

Short of maintaining a kind of telekinetic bubble around herself and her boyfriend, Driani was powerless to prevent the impending doom that awaited her. She had been drained when she finally retained her human form, but all the fighting had left her completely exhausted. Her 'human form' was not truly human but actually a mutant. She was petite, only 5'3", with pale skin, deep brown eyes, long wavy black hair, and powers that allowed her to adapt to vampirism without losing all humanity. She used to hate her appearance because she felt she looked helpless and meek, adjectives that didn't suit her vibrant personality at all. She had preferred her vampiric form, a tall winged creature with dark skin and dangerous fangs. The past few months she had been in the totally reversed state of any human, a primal wolf-like beast. She hated being like that, hated the death and destruction she brought, but it was necessary to keep her alive. But now, during what just might be her final hour, she chose to look human, as did Stephen. She admired, for what she was now positive would be the last time, his well-muscled body, silky hair and beautiful hazel eyes. "Stephen, I can't hold up any longer." Driani said sadly. "Me neither."

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know, Dri, but how about we go down fighting, if go down we must?"

"Kiss me goodbye then. Who would have thought that a life time one hundred and thirty years long would feel so short when it ends?" And end it would have, if not for the timely arrival of the jet that was currently hovering 30,000 feet above them.

****

"Okay, prepare to disembark. We've arrived" Nightcrawler skillfully maneuvered the jet to right over Cerebro's targets. The Blackbird jet was state of the art with some of the best technology not just in the world but in the universe, thanks to the alien races the x-men had come into contact with. The x-men all fell silent as they surveyed the scene below them. It was a pitch-black night and quite cold. Two figures were visible in a tower, surrounded by hundreds of people whose intentions did not look friendly from the torches and stakes they were carrying. . "Good God I think we might be too late." The figures came into focus so well that they could see the expressions of despair on their faces. "The mob is probably made up of good people who are getting carried away. And, I might say, rightly so if those guys in the tower really are vampires." Shadowcat's tone was bitter as she remembered the unfortunate encounters the x-men had had with the vampire Dracula when he had attempted to make Storm his mate. "Fighting them wouldn't be right. Besides, their sheer numbers would overwhelm us." "How do you propose we get to them then?" Colossus questioned. "Could you teleport them, Kurt?"

Nightcrawler: "I guess so, but would they want to come?"

Rogue: This ain't gonna be easy. Fighting of a mob that we don't wanna hurt to rescue people who may not wanna be saved? Not my type a' fight.

Shadowcat: "It's now or never, those people are climbing the tower and the walls aren't that high."

Rogue: "Uh, Ah think that that particular option jus disappeared, guys."

Turning their attention back towards the mob scene below, everyone in the jet watched in horror as the vampires jumped off the tower in to the frenzy.

Colossus: "A fall from there couldn't kill a vampire, could it?"

Shadowcat: "Look, that wasn't a suicide attempt, they're trying to fight their way out!"

Rachel: "You sure that wasn't suicide? Looks to me like they know that they are going down, and want to do so fighting."

Nightcrawler: "You are right. And if we want to save them we will have to fight." The German born mutant sighed. He'd been hoping to rescue the target peacefully. So much for that idea. "Colossus, Rogue, and I will attempt to keep the targets relatively isolated. Kitty and Rachel, you try to persuade them to leave with us if you can. All right, now everybody out. I'll take Peter, the rest of you get down by yourselves."

Shadowcat: "'K boss."

Teleporting himself and Colossus into the fray, Nightcrawler couldn't help being frightened. A superstitious crowd like this was sure to believe him to be a demon. That, coupled with the fact that he was attempting to prevent their killing of the vampires, was sure to make them hate him.

Rogue and Rachel flew down while Shadowcat 'air-walked' beside them, leaving the jet to hover on autopilot. "Hey Rach, you want the hunky guy or the girl?" Kitty asked her companion. Calming those fighting devils down didn't look like an easy task. "Doesn't matter to me. But look, I think the guy is already done for." Rachel shuddered as she felt his psychic death screams before she could even attempt to calm him. She turned her telepathic talents to the girl.

****

They were too late. They already had Stephen, and they would have Driani too in a minute. She froze when they captured him. For just a second, before the stake came down, she remembered the last hundred years. All the good times they'd had, traveling all over Europe, Asia, and both Americas, learning new languages, setting up whole lives for themselves for years at a time, always leaving just before anyone caught on to the real reason they never looked older. Watching their beautiful estate age gracefully, playing pranks on unsuspecting villagers, the love they had shared, the petty fights they had, how he'd taught her everything he know, Driani remembered it all. Then one angry, uneducated peasant brought the stake down on his heart, and it was over. Five hundred years of youth and strength, and suddenly Stephen was nothing but ashes. She could feel it in her heart, a burning ache where his spirit used to be. Just like that she snapped. Going full on into her third form, Driani lunged herself at the peasant and before she even realized he was dead she was on the next one, and then the next. Her consciousness slowly retreated to mourn in the back of her head while her fighting instincts took over, despite the presence she felt in her mind that tried to calm her. What was that presence? It didn't seem like a threat at first, but before she knew it, the presence had stopped attempting to calm her and began to paralyze her. Well, if it wanted a fight it had gotten one. Driani psyche was every bit as strong as her body if not more so. Yet it discarded her best efforts as though they were nothing and began to take control. Her kicks and scratches grew weaker and weaker until she couldn't move at all. Just before she was nabbed by the mob, she felt herself floating in the air_. 'This really is the end. That's good. I don't want to live without Stephen. Good bye world. '_ And with that somber thought, she passed out.


	3. Introduction Part III

Author's Notice: I apologize for the choppy format of my stories. It's not just that they get muddled when I upload them to , I sort of write them that way. You see, when I think up my plots I picture them as comic illustrations, with dialogue in speech bubbles. So try to picture them that way. Again, I'm sorry.

Who's Who for people unfamiliar with the x-men:

Nightcrawler-Kurt, a blue teleporter

Shadowcat-Kitty, able to phase through solid objects and walk on air

Rachel- no codename, telepathic and telekinetic

Colossus- Peter, transforms into steel

Rogue- no real name absorbs the psyche and powers of who every she touches, flying and super strength

Wolverine- Logan, not currently in the story

Jubilee- no codename, no currently in the story

Aboard the Blackbird jet on the way home from their latest mission, Kitty Pryde was feeling uneasy. She nudged her friend Rachel Summers, and asked "How long did you put her to sleep for?" She was talking about Driani, a semi-vampiress they had rescued from a mob because Cerebro had told them that she was a mutant. "She should be out for at least another ten hours. I don't think she wants to wake up. I wouldn't either if I'd been through what she just went through." Rachel glanced over at Driani. She was pretty creepy looking. She'd transformed back into a human form now, but something about her was clearly not human and it wasn't just the fangs. Then again she had every right to look like that. Some one who was clearly important to her was dead and when the villagers realized they couldn't kill her (because of Rachel's telekinetic bubble); they had destroyed the house that must have been her home. She had nowhere to go back to. Plus, she was still a vampire. Kitty: "Hey Kurt, um, what exactly are we going to do with her? You don't plan to make her a team member do you?"

Kurt: "I really am not sure yet. She is very powerful and would be an asset to the team, but judging from her behavior back there I'm not sure she's sane enough to join."

'_Great, now we have a mad woman to take care of. Like the X-mansion wasn't a crazy enough place as it is.' _Kitty thought to herself. Rachel turned to her. "I'm sorry but I couldn't help picking up that thought. I know that you hate vampires because of what they did to Ororo, and true, they are forces of evil, but she's still half-human and there may be hope for her. Just give her a try okay?"

Kitty: "Sure. But if she's crazy she goes right back to central Europe where she came from."

Rachel: "Deal."

****

"_Drat. I'm still alive aren't I?"_ This unhappy statement was Driani's first though upon waking up. Without opening her eyes she tried to figure out where she was. _'Well, vampires don't go to heaven, and I don't feel hot so this probably isn't hell... '_ Even while only semi-conscious her wry sense of humor was making wise cracks. Then her keen senses kicked in, filling her with information that her sleepy mind took a minute to process. These sheets weren't the same texture as hers, she couldn't smell the roses that were in the vase by her bed, the sounds accosting her ears were not the ones that she normally heard. Her environment wasn't familiar. Most importantly, Stephen wasn't beside her. Suddenly all the events of last night came crashing back into her consciousness. _'It doesn't matter where I am! Stephen is, is...'_ She couldn't even complete the thought. Her rage and grief instantly manifested themselves as a soul-piercing scream. Her eyes flew open and she went to stand up but couldn't. She was strapped down to the bed that wasn't hers. She was in what looked like a med-lab. And the only being in the room was a blue demon. Things could not be worse. Her scream emptied all the oxygen from her lungs and she passed out again. It was a relief to pass into unconsciousness and forget everything, but the realization that everything would come back when next she awoke stole away whatever peace she might have had for that split second.

****

"She's out cold again. She's been like this for over a week!" Kurt had been pleased when his patient had finally showed signs of life, but her screaming upon awaking did not seem like a good sign. "I just don't know what to do for her." He turned to his companions, Kitty and Rachel. The two girls were looking over the results from the tests Kurt had run on the vampire. They had confirmed that she was a mutant, and since none of them knew what vampiric blood looked like she might be a vampiress too. Whoever and whatever she was, she'd been in a self-imposed comatose state since the x-men rescued her seven days ago. The screaming episode had been that night, had she hadn't even moved since then. He'd previously thought it best to allow her to wake up on her own, but he had decided to accept Rachel's offer of psychically probing her.

****

Rachel sat at the foot of the unconscious girl's bed and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She concentrated, then began.

'_Hello?'_

She was met with a fair amount of resistant, surprising for someone who had probably not been trained by a telepath. Or had she? They knew nothing about her at all. Rachel pushed her gently, prodding around her brain for a response.

'_Hello?'_

'_LEAVE ME ALONE!'_ the mental screaming hurt like an intense migraine, but through her pain Rachel continued.

'_I know that you hurt a lot right now. But we are worried about you. Would you like to wake up?'_

'_Why are you worried about me? Do you know who I am? Who are you anyway?'_ these questions were posed with hostility but at least she'd stopped resisting.

The girl mentally went into Rachel's mind and began to use her memories to answer her questions. She wasn't a true telepath, Rachel could tell that her thoughts and emotions were undisturbed, the girl was only reading her memories. Rachel allowed her to search but only provided her with a fraction of the information that she was after. She told the girl her name and a little about the x-men (especially about Kurt so as not to frighten her when she awoke), then responded with a search of her own. All of this took seconds.

'_Hello Driani.'_

'_Rachel, I need to stay like this. Just a little longer. A couple centuries maybe'_

'_Please? This isn't good for you. Besides, the others want to meet you.'_

'_Others? All right. You did save me after all. But you might want to strap me down. Once I regain consciousness, my body will probably try to morph.'_

'_Okay'_

Gently withdrawing from Driani's mind, Rachel opened her eyes and telekinetically tightened the straps that held the girl.

****

Rousing herself from the depths of her slumber, Driani opened her eyes. Her conversation with the telepath had been interesting. Her normally bicameral mind split into three parts. Her intellect wanted to wake up and meet her rescuers, and eventually make a new life for herself. Driani's heart wanted to curl up and die; short of that, it would settle for driving the mind that controlled it completely insane. And then the last part, the third form, her dark side, wanted what it always wanted. To kill. She forced her intellect to take control and wake up. An onslaught of grief crushed her spirit as soon as she regained consciousness, and every instinct in her wanted to morph into third form, fight and run and scream until she was dead. She refused to let her body follow her heart and transform, because what kind of an impression was that to make on new people? But she forced her humanity to take over, keeping the other side of herself in check by telling it 'I'm curious. Wait. Then we will go crazy.' Opening her eyes, she saw that her body had disobeyed her. Her lovely blue wings grew than shrank as she became a wolf, but through sheer will power she forced herself back to human form. Snapping her eyes open, she took in her surroundings. She was in a large white room. A girl who must have been the telepath stood at the foot of her bed. Behind her were another girl and the blue demon. With one short and final shriek she was fully normal and totally in control of both her body and her vampiric nature. "Hello."

"Nice to meet you. How do you feel?" asked the demon. She would have to stop thinking of him as a demon, he was a mutant like her, or so the telepath said. "Physically, spiritually or mentally?" she quipped. The three of them looked surprised then laughed softly. She could imagine them thinking 'wow, the psycho made a joke!' "Physically, I guess you meant. I think I'm fine. I could probably get up now; I'd like to stretch. How long was I...like I was?"

Kurt: "A week. We didn't know if you'd ever recover mentally, though your body healed immediately."

Driani: "God, it didn't feel that long." _'So far, so good. Talking, not screaming. How long can I hold my self in?'_

Kitty: "Um, I don't mean to be rude, but are you really a vampire?'

Kurt: "Kitty! I don't think that...she wants to talk right now. What is your name?"

Rachel: "Driani"

Driani: "No, it's all right. Kind of. I mean in the traditional sense. Not to alarm you but I do drink blood. I think that's what you meant, yes? But something kept me from fully becoming a vampiress. My body didn't die. I still have no idea why, but I don't have all the capabilities of a true vampire. Not for lack of trying though."

Kurt: "That must have had something to do with your mutation." Kitty looked as though she would be sick.

Driani: "my what?" _'Poor child. I've really freaked her out.'_

Rachel: "The structure of you DNA give you certain powers that baseline humans don't have, making you a mutant."

Driani: "I've heard of that. The "mutant menace". It never affected me before."

Suddenly the irony of the situation struck Driani. Her life as she knew it was over. Her lover and sole companion was dead. And here she was, talking about genetics with these weird people who supposedly saved her. She couldn't go home and try to live without Stephen. An eternity alone would be torture. But she couldn't unleash herself in third form upon the unsuspecting world. She had to get control permanently, and get it soon. Driani looked at the three people standing above her. "Would you mind leaving me alone for a little while? I need some time to myself. "Sure. You can use the intercom here if you need us." Driani attempted to sit up then smiled a tiny little smile. "Uh, it'd help if I could get up."

****

They'd done better than help her get up. Driani had her own room, a cozy little place with a bed, dresser, and view of a lake outside the window, but best of all privacy. She could tell that they were nervous about having a vampire as a house guest, thinking that she'd kill them all in their sleep. Especially that Kitty girl, Driani bet she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. Getting to know them all would be fun, if she had the spirit to. Right now, she still wanted to die. But she was gifted with eternal life. Driani knew what a precious gift that was; having seen so much death and suffering in her stay on earth, much of it brought by her and Stephen. With all her knowledge from traveling the world, she could no doubt help these x-men people if they wanted her to. If not she'd find some other cause to devote herself to. She shouldn't waste her life. She'd all ready spent a whole week so deep in her grief that she couldn't remain conscious. Stephen wouldn't have wanted her to stay like that on his account. He'd want her to live, and perhaps even in time love again. And that was precisely what she would do.

Author's Note: If you like my story and want to read my own comments on it, or even just my strange ramblings, check out my journal on under the user name phoenix2737. Thanks so much for reading thus far! I know it's been kind of melodramatic and boring, but it's all just a pretext for my original plot line. That gets much better I promise.


	4. Ambivalence

Or maybe not. Living and loving involved getting up. Despite her appearance of physical health and her newfound perspective on 'starting over', Driani still felt sick. It wasn't just the fact that while her skin was healed, she might still have internal injuries. No, the mind she had just attempted to soothe and bring back from insanity was still reeling. It was a sort of numbing depression that set in now, the kind that comes right after making a resolution to do what you know is the right thing, but still have no desire to do. Yes, that summed up Driani's feeling nicely. I mean, Stephen was dead. _'Yeah, keep saying it to yourself. Adapt. Come to terms.'_ Or she could go back to sleep. Of the two options:

Get up and start new life, make friends, find love, eat something, and

Go to sleep and forget about 1.

Driani felt that number two was clearly the better choice.

She awoke hours later, considering the consequence of following the plan her unconscious mind had formulated in her sleep. In her dream, she was dead, and therefore happy, but didn't know how she had died. That was the problem of a vampire committing suicide. How to do it? She couldn't bleed to death or hang herself, and finding a poison strong enough to stop her clock would be nearly impossible. There was always the sun, her immortal foe, but death by sunlight was slow and painful. Perhaps a stake through her broken heart... Driani looked around the room. No stake-like objects. _'Would these x-men people give me one? Probably not, they seem committed to saving lives, even a life as miserable as mine is going to be.' _ Then an idea struck her, a brilliant idea that she was startled she hadn't though of before. Years ago, she and Stephen had encountered a super-being, (she must have been a mutant) with a power the intrigued both of them. They were drawn to the girl by the aura of power she put out, there had been about a decade when Driani was very good at sensing auras but her powers tended to wax and wan sporadically. Anyway, this girl was comatose and her mind was an open book to Driani and Stephen. By the utilization of a power that Stephen was in command of at that time, Driani had buried part of her soul in that unconscious girl's mind. They did it just for a lark, and looking back it had seemed foolish. A true vampire like Stephen had a spirit but no soul; hence Driani had half a soul until this particular encounter. They had done this to lessen some of her 'irrational' guilt about killing and it had worked. But if her soul was still there, inside the brain of that girl in Britain, she could contrive a means of exchanging her broken spirit for that soul. But was the girl alive? It had been fifteen years ago, and while the girl's family had been adamant about keeping her alive even in her vegetable state, wouldn't they have given up eventually? There was one way of finding out. Closing her eyes, Driani let her consciousness float out of her body. It took a supreme effort that would leave her drained for weeks, but Driani was capable of having her essence leave her corporeal form, if only for brief periods. She did this now, and with a thought she was in that hospital in the outskirts of London, looking at this girl. Remarkably, she hadn't changed at all. She still looked like the eighteen year old beauty she had been fifteen years ago, blond hair, pale skin. Under the eye lids with the long lashes her eyes were probably still that uncanny clear blue. This was strange but as it had no importance to Driani right now she ignored it. Reaching out she put one of her ghostly hands on each side of the girl's head and pushed into her mind. Suddenly she was in a desolate wasteland. She held in her hands a cracked and blood stained silver sphere, the physical representation of her spirit. There was a replica of the girl sitting on a stone bench in the center of her mind, watching Driani. She held half of a golden and bejeweled orb. Yes, her soul was still here! It was appeared to be altered. Taking the orb from the girl she examined it. The girl watched warily but said nothing and made no move to stop her. There were memories here that were not Driani's own, peccadilloes and traits and preferences that were not did not belong to her. This did not matter. This was basically the soul of a happy and mentally well person. The other globe Driani held was not. Taking the golden ball, she put into the girl's hands the silver one. The girl waved her hands and a cage similar to what you might keep a bird in appeared. She placed Driani's spirit inside, then nodded. Driani pulled out of the girl's mind. She was whole and happy. She missed Stephen but knew that she could go on without him now. She knew that she could not kill in her vampiric form, would no longer feel the lust for blood unless she transformed into her third form. She was as human as possible without losing her powers. Closing her eyes once again she was back in her body.

Oddly, she was not exhausted, as she should have been from her transatlantic trip. She must have taken some energy from the girl by accident. This would wear off eventually but right now, the new Driani wanted to start her life. She decided to go find the x-men. She would join their team, become part of their lives. When she was had built a completely new world for herself, then it would be safe to go back to England and get her spirit back. She would start now.

Thousands of miles away, a girl wakes up from the comatose state she had been in for sixteen years. Allicia Eveian opened her eyes, searching for the girl who had just reclaimed the soul left in Allicia's possession for so long. She and that girl were forever linked now, either to be the best of friends or worst of enemies for all eternity. It would be the later. Allicia wanted vengeance. The girl was gone. Suddenly, so was Allicia, phasing through the molecules of this world into her own dimension. Her mutant power worked now as it had not the last time she attempted it. Enigma was born.


	5. Meet Vampira

Disclaimer: For the last time! I don't own the x-men. The story is getting good now I promise.

Great. As soon as Driani had mentally prepared herself to go out and make a new life for herself, she was stopped by a little thing like not having any clothes to wear out. She was a flirt, but not so much so that she wanted to meet guys she didn't know in her nightgown. She checked the closet in the room the x-men had provided her with. Just the thing, a comfortable looking blue robe. Thus dressed, she made her way into the hallway only to be stopped by another 'little thing'. She had no idea how to find her way around the mansion. Defeated by fear of getting lost. As Driani turned to go back into her room, she saw the telepath out of the corner of her eye. "Good morning Rachel." Rachel was already dressed for the day in jeans and a T-shirt. "Good morning Driani. Do you want some breakfast?"

Driani: "Um, I don't think so but I'll come with you."

She followed Rachel down the hall to a staircase that led to the first floor, then followed another hallway to a spacious, bright kitchen already filled with the other occupants of the house. Driani was impressed with the grandeur and comfort of the mansion. The rooms were beautifully decorated and the building it's self seemed huge. It all left her with one burning question.

"What is this place?" Rachel and the others smiled and began to explain.

They told her the whole story of Charles Xavier's dream of mutants and humans living in harmony and how he formed the x-men (Xavier himself was during research work at a place called Muir island). They told her about the types of missions the x-men did and how they trained in the danger room. Then each of them introduced themselves to her. Hearing their stories she realized that none of these people had a real home to go back to either. She would fit right in here, if they would let her. When they had finished she realized that they were looking at her. "I guess you want to hear about me now, huh? Where do I start?" "Wherever you want sughah." Rogue said. "Well, I know I look 24, but I'm 130 years old. I've been all over the world. As for what I can do, would you like a demonstration?"

Kurt: "Why not? Let's go to the danger room."

Driani: "Could I borrow some clothes first."

Shadowcat: "Storm's uniform should fit her."

Driani; "is she the one in the pictures with you all?" Looking at one of the famed pictures taken of the x-men team on their graduation day she saw a woman a great deal taller than her and with a totally different build. "I don't think her stuff would fit me"

Shadowcat: "Sure it will, it's made of unstable molecules."

Setting her up with a basic training program used for practicing solo combat situations, Kurt and the rest of the x-men sat in the observation booth.

****

'_I really want to join this team. I've got to do my best now, my future depends on it.'_

With those thoughts, Driani morphed into her second form. Now six inches taller and with completely different features, Driani got herself airborne through the help of her bat-like blue wings. She was actually no more talented this way than in human form, she just wanted to show off. She sized up her opponents, four holographic images and a robot. Piece of cake. With a warrior's battle cry she flung herself at them, using all of her martial arts training and vampiric skill to overcome them in just a few seconds. She stood up and prepared for the next challenge. The holographs she had just so neatly killed got up and doubled. Double roundhouse, flying back kick, spinning hook kick and some knife hand strikes took care of them.

She landed on her feet crouched like a cat, then stood up slowly with her head last by using her snake like spine. Morphing back to human form, she looked up at the observation booth for approval. Voices came over the intercom:

"That was incredible! Where did you learn to fight like that?"

Brushing her hair out of her face with a smile she said, "The easier answered question is where _didn't_ I learn to fight. I've traveled all over the world, picking up new techniques and styles everywhere I went. I'm also good with swords, knives, and staffs." After briefly conferring with his teammates Nightcrawler teleported down to her. "Driani, on behalf of the x-men I would like to invite you to join our team." 'Yes!' "I would love to." The grin on her face turned into a small frown as she continued "There is one thing though, my ahem, dietary restrictions. I can tell that all of you are worried about having a vampire on the team. And Kitty," she said looking up at the girl as she phased through the floor of the booth to stand next to Driani, "I'm sorry I scared you with my blood comment. I wasn't thinking clearly. I can drink blood, but I don't have to; I can eat regular food just like all of you. Forgive me?" Kitty still looked hesitant even as she said, "Sure, forget about it."

****

After she showered and put on a skirt and tank top borrowed from Rogue, Driani made her way down to the rec. room where Kitty was playing spider solitaire on her lab top as Peter and Kurt played pool. "Hey Kitty can I borrow your computer?" "Sure, what do you want to do?" Kitty handed it over. "I was hoping to get on-line." Kitty looked incredulous. "You know how to do that? Driani smiled. "If I told you I was a country girl at heart, I'd be lying. I've done all my shopping on-line since Internet shopping was possible."

Rogue came in to announce that "Dinners ready y'all. Hey sughah what'cha ordering?" Before she knew it Driani had a crowd watching her click and order things to her account. "Uh what is the address of this place anyway?" she giggled, finding it funny that she didn't know the address of the place where she was going to live. This wasn't so hard to start over, laugh. Her heart was still aching but she knew now that she could get through this. She went to the last page that displayed what was in her virtual 'shopping cart'. "Wow Driani I didn't think your tastes would be so...modern." Kurt was trying to delicately phrase his shock that she was buying jeans and sweaters instead of traditional black lace capes. "I do love all that gothic stuff, but I'm just as modern as the rest of you. If not more so," she teased, clicking on a very _modern_ looking metallic dress. "Shall we eat now guys?"

'_You know,'_ Kitty psi-said to Rachel, _'I think that getting to know Driani is going to be fun.'_

****

They sat around the table in the elegant dining room. There was an awkward pause. "Do you say grace before meals here?" "Well I'm Jewish but we usually say something, um is that okay with you?" Kitty sounded scared, and for the first time Driani remembered seeing a necklace on Kitty before. Then it all clicked. "Oh the religion thing? I'm only a _semi_-vampire. You can say grace, wear crosses, and if I remember right Kitty you can put your Star of David necklace back on. Oh and Rogue, it would be okay to have put garlic in the spaghetti sauce. The only thing that's going to hurt me is the sun at noon and a stake through the heart." The x-men around her visibly relaxed. "And no coffin." "I'm very glad to hear all that Driani. Is there anything else about being a semi-vampire we should know?" Peter said. "I don't think so. Anything else I should know about being a x-man?" "Yeah the codenames. We all have an 'alias' that we go by so that our enemies don't know our civilian identities." Kurt continued Rachel's sentence. "I'm Nightcrawler, Piotr is Colossus, and Kitty is Shadowcat. Rogue is always Rogue, and the same with Rachel. Why is that anyway?" they shrugged at him. "Since sometimes people are unhappy with codename that other people picked for them," he grinned at Kitty, formerly known as Sprite and Ariel. She stuck her tongue out at him. "You can pick your own. Driani thought for a second, then looked up. "How about Vampira?" "Excellent! It suits you." Kurt raised his class. "May I propose a toast to the newest member of the x-men, Vampira!

psi speaking is a way of communicating with telepaths by letting them read your thoughts.


	6. It was too good to last

Months pass. Vampira trains herself, mind and body, to perfection in the danger room. For hours each day she works out with the x-men, learning to fight as a team and honing their respective skills. She meets the famed Professor Xavier, listens to his and the others' stories of the x-men's battles, and slowly forms friendships with her teammates. Her room starts to look less and less like a guest room as more of the items and clothes she has ordered arrive weekly. Eventually she joins Nightcrawler, Colossus, Shadowcat, Rogue, Rachel and later on Storm (who is back from Africa, having regained her powers...) on missions, fighting everything from Sentinels to Magneto to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Never forgetting Stephen, Driani learns to think of him less, and when she does think of him to remember the good times and not his tragic end. It is roughly four months later that our story picks up.

It had started out as a good day. It was Driani's (or Dri as she was now called) turn to make breakfast. She got up before anyone else to make her infamous blueberry pancakes, which were inevitably burnt. Driani had She'd given up on blood for now, though she still missed it and the euphoria it brought in addition to a power surge. Her room was at this point decorated to exactly her style, with midnight blue walls, antique-ish looking dark wood furniture and a canopy bed. Then she went to wake up her teammates. Walking down the hallway, she started to knock on doors and sing one of the new songs she'd been memorizing, as a result of the music Kitty had introduced her to. While everyone agreed that her voice was beautiful, it was very loud. "Goddess, child! Hush!" Ororo poked her sleepy head out of her room. "Okay okay we're getting up! Cool it will ya?" Rogue was not a morning person, as she proved by flying out of her room straight at Driani and pinning her to the wall. Driani smiled and slid out of her super-strength grasp, then flipped Rogue onto her back. With this sort of friendly rough housing the assorted young people made their way down to the kitchen where Xavier was already reading the newspaper.

After breakfast they changed into their uniforms and met in the observation booth of the danger room. Given the option to design her own uniform, Dri had worked with Rachel (who can use her telekinesis to rearrange molecules in things like clothes) to put together her own look, and both girls had been pleased with it. Deep blue with strips of plum, it fit her form well and the unstable molecules could accommodate her morphing into vampiric form. They selecting a training program, one that used holographic images of a place called the savage land, and then Shadowcat phased everyone down into the room itself. The session was going well until one of the 'dangers' of the room that Vampira had not yet encountered grabbed her. It was a sonic beam, and coupled with the metal tentacles and holographic dinosaurs she was already fighting it knocked her out. Rachel telekinetically pushed the stop button and Nightcrawler teleported Dri to the infirmary. He wondered how many times he'd had to do that for various team mates. Laying her on the table he started to set up the various scanners the x-men had acquired from the Shi'ar. Kurt hoped Driani would be all right. They'd become very close over the past months. She spoke German well and he'd enjoyed speaking in his native tongue with her, in addition to the fact that they had much in common. By this time the others had gotten to the med. lab. As he turned around to assign them tasks setting up the medical equipment, Driani sat up looking dazed. She claimed to be fine other then a bad headache. Storm walked her up to her room, then Ororo rejoined her team to finish the session.

Feeling a little better later, Driani went on a walk around the lake with Piotr and Kitty. From what she could understand the two had used to be lovers, but after their break-up they were trying to remain friends. It was then time for dinner. Whoever had been supposed to cook had instead ordered pizza. Afterwards they had hung out in the living room, watching some movie or other while Rogue beat Piotr at air hockey. One by one her friends drifted up to their bedrooms and Driani was left alone. She went up to her room and put on her night gown but couldn't sleep because of her headache. Returning to the kitchen she made herself some tea and sat down at the table. Occupied with a magazine, it was past midnight before Driani began to feel sleepy. Then she heard a noise, like a motorcycle. A little alarmed she stood up, then realized how silly she was being and sat down again. '_honestly! Here I am, a full fledged member of the x-men, jumping at noises in the dark!' _Then the kitchen door opened. The guy who walked in was one of the best looking men she had ever seen, but there was something about him that she did not like. Scarcely taller than her, well muscled and with a shock of black hair, he stared at her and raised one eyebrow. "Who are you?"

No longer scared, Driani felt indignant. "I think I could ask you the same question!" Just as he was about to answer her, a teenage girl walked into the room and stood next to him. "Whose she?"

Driani: "For god's sake I live here!" they looked vaguely familiar, but why? Glancing behind her Driani saw the picture of the x-men taken shortly before she came. Oh. This must be Wolverine and Jubilee. Wolverine tilted his head to look past her and yelled up toward the stairs "'Roro! 'Crawler! 'Cat! Ya home?" "Shh you'll wake them up!" "That's what I'm tryin' ta do. I haven't seen 'em in months." Kitty came down the stairs and rescued the three of them from their awkward situation, sort of. She hugged Logan and Jubilee and explained to Driani that they had been gone for a long time but were also members of the x-men. Driani apologized to Wolverine and then went upstairs to her room to ponder the significance of this new development. She really loved living here and the work she did, and didn't want to leave, not that she had anywhere else to go, but she knew intuitively that she and this Logan guy would not get along well. But there was nothing for it, she'd just have to carry on and hope for the best.

Storm regained her powers in 'Fall of the Mutants', but I didn't want to mention that particular book because it involves characters and circumstances that I don't want to put into my story, yet anyway.

Who am I kidding? Nobody reads this story. It's mine. If people read it they would leave reviews, probably. And how many reviews do I have after all this time? None. Sigh. Maybe I should stop writing and take up stamp collecting.


	7. Mystery Visitor aka Meet Faerie

**Author's Note**: Hey readers! Apparently you are out there! I was thrilled to get my first review, and if more of you would follow suit that'd be excellent. If any of you are especially knowledgeable on the subject of x-men history, don't hesitate to tell me if I've made a mistake. Aside from mangling time sequences I want my story to be as accurate as possible. Or if anyone knows what Rachel's codename is, why Kurt broke up with Amanda, or when Gambit joined the team, please let me know! The stuff about Nightcrawler's history is especially important for my next chapter...hint hint. Many thanks. Just a quick thing I thought I should add; Italics within a paragraph and single semi-colons _('like this')_ indicate thought, whereas an entire paragraph is the point of view of someone outside the x-men. Enjoy!

Driani was completely right in thinking that she would not get along with Wolverine. They clashed on every single matter, from which programs to use in the danger room to whose turn it was to do the dishes to the mechanics that kept the mansion running. One of them would often attack the other during team danger room sessions, and then pretend to apologize and say in was an accident. One memorable incident involved Driani throwing Logan into the lake after he punctured the raft she was sunbathing on with his claws. The drenched duo continued to yell at each other well their friends laughed hysterically. Kurt was partially to blame for that, since he teleported Logan onto the raft, but interestingly Dri forgave him and added the incident to the growing list of things she hated about Logan.

Driani assumed that Logan's little sidekick Jubilee would follow his example, but she was wrong. On one particularly boring rainy day, Jubilee had wanted to go to the mall but everyone else was too busy to drive her. She had looked questioningly at Driani before the vampiress put down her magazine and said "Come on, I'll take you." They had a great time shopping together. The Chinese teenager had explained to Driani that Logan really was a good guy, he just had a rough exterior that had to be broken through over time. Jubilee said that she really wanted Logan and Driani to be friends, but Dri could see where she was going with her idea. Jubilation wanted them to be _more_ than friends, pairing up her favorite adults as children so often do. No way was that going to happen.

Or was it? After talking with Jubilee Driani tried to see Logan in a different light, but just couldn't. Every time she saw him she just got angry and wanted to kill him. He felt the same way. It might have had something to do with the fact that both of them had animalistic natures, both of them wanting to prove their dominance. But at night, when he wasn't actually near her, she couldn't help thinking about how good-looking he was, and how she would find many of his traits and quirks attractive in someone else. He was so different from Stephen, and Driani wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. As for the rest of the x-men, Driani had no major problems. All of them were spooked initially by her vampirism, especially Ororo, Kitty, and Kurt, all of whom had had bitter experience with others of her kind, but they'd come around. Kitty still didn't like her very much, and the same with Ororo, but she had lots in common with Kurt and enjoyed his company. Peter, Rogue and Rachel still didn't

Ororo, Rogue, and Driani and been playing around with the controls in the danger room, combining elements of the savage land and several alien planets for a new and bizarre effect, when Kurt's voice had come over the loudspeaker. "All x-men to the danger room. We have a situation." "Great, we're already here. What is it this time, Elf?" Rogue posed her question to the team's leader before she could see him, knowing instinctively that he was going to teleport. She had inherited a kind of sixth sense from absorbing the psyche and powers of former Avenger Carol Danvers. "Double whammy. A girl who recently developed her powers is wrecking havoc in Brooklyn and somebody just unveiled the latest in the line of sentinels near Philadelphia." "'K, we splitin' up the team?" Shadowcat and the others had just arrived. "I hate too, but there's no alternative. I'm going to see about the girl; the rest of you tackle the sententials. You know the drill, destroy the existing ones and then get the mastermold. It's definitely in Philadelphia, but we don't know where. Cerebro indicates that they are probably cheap ones, but even that will be a challenge. I'll need a partner, who wants to come with me?" "I'll go, Elf." Wolverine volunteered. "All right everybody, suit up. I'll teleport Wolverine to New York; you guys take the jet. Questions?" "Can you teleport two people that far?" still the newbie, Vampira didn't know the full capabilities of her teammates. "With stops, yes. Any more questions? Comments? Concerns?" There were none. "Let's go."

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After landing the jet in Fairmount Park, Storm switched on the cloaking device that would both make their jet invisible and repel people from it, hence safeguarding against it's discovery. The x-men disembarked, then Storm, Rogue, and Rachel flew up to survey where the Sentinels were while Shadowcat, Colossus, and Vampira scouted from the ground. They were all inter-linked by their headset radios, and should those fail to work Rachel could telepathically link them. They were all fairly confident, but Sentinels were not fun. Robots designed to capture and kill mutants, several madmen had remade the Sentinels over time, each batch more sophisticated and stronger than the last. Everyone except Vampira had gone up against them, and even she had in the danger room, but no one knew the powers of this new brand. Nightcrawler seemed to think that they were a less advanced model, yet even that could be lethal. And who made them? They would soon find out.

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Outside of a public high school in Brooklyn (actually on the schools roof) Wolverine and Nightcrawler observed the pandemonium below them. A teenage girl had manifested her powers, which appeared to be the ability to generate some kinds of ice and fire, much to alarm of her classmates, who were frozen and trapped in a very strange sort of fire that wasn't burning them. She was average looking, black hair and brown eyes, and ice was pouring from her finger times while fires started everywhere she looked. Rescuing the girl from the growing mob would be a fairly simple matter, but cleaning up the mess she made might be harder. Wordlessly, Nightcrawler and Wolverine agreed that Kurt would teleport the girl to the safety of the roof, then determine how best to fix her dilemma. This accomplished, Caroline Woods found herself with two of the strangest saviors she had ever seen.

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Back in Philadelphia, the rest of the team had found the Sentinels. Fortunately for them and the residents of Philly, the robots were a low grade model, easily stopped by Storm's lightning or Shadowcat's phasing ability, though not before throwing Driani to the ground and giving her several nasty scratches on her legs, but they were essentially harmless. They did the standard "Mutant identified. Destruction eminent." routine but were surprisingly easy to disable, lacking the technology of the last few batches of robots. They seemed to be unprepared to deal with the x-men's powers, which was particularly unusual since the x-men were the primary mutants to take out on the East Coast. But if it was set up for them, why not place them in New York? It was a mystery, but still a problem. In mass even the most simple of Sentinels were dangerous. They had to find the mastermold. Rachel had telepathically scanning the city for the malicious thoughts of the creator, but to no avail. Whoever had made these either wasn't very smart, or had a much bigger scale project in mind, because releasing twenty robots with old technology into a city to kill mutants without any clear intentions did not seem like a clever idea to the x-men. Unless the robots were a distraction to keep the x-men from discovering their true objective. Whatever the reason behind their presence, the Sentinels had a mastermold that needed to be destroyed. But where? Flying above the city, Rogue could see the huge robots lying in the streets where they had been felled. They had gone out in groups of two, the ten pairs each coming from a warehouse that appeared to be abandoned. In fact, the fallen robots looked like a dotted line leading to this decrepit building '_Bingo!'_ She flew back to tell the group's field leader, Storm.

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_But the Blackbird, cloaked as it maybe, was still unprotected. Not that they could have hidden it from her anyway. Sariceia Galigo had come to far to be stopped now. She'd been following the x-men for months, since they'd paid that visit so close to her homeland Romania and rescued the vampiress. She'd been home to try to find her family, but the effort had been futile once again. Imagine her surprise at finding someone she had never expected to see again. He big brother who had evolved into meaning more to her than he knew. Or would ever know, at this rate. Shaking her head to clear her mind of her musings, she began the task at hand. Using her charming power, she cajoled the space where the door of the invisible jet ought to be into opening. Once inside, the interior of the jet was visible to her, but the cloaking device now protected her. Marvelous. Helping herself to a soda from the mini-fridge, she sat down in one of the chairs to wait for the return of the x-men. This would be interesting..._

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"Kid, chill out. We're the good guys. You alive?" In his somewhat unconventional manner Wolverine attempted to comfort the girl. Her power had stopped, likely because of the strain of her first teleporting experience. Caroline was shaking but nodded. "Yeah. Except for the mob that is chasing me away from my school, I'm fine." Nightcrawler admired her composure. "Can you clean up the ice and fire?" "I think, let me see..." She closed her eyes and stretched her hands out. Nothing happened for a second, then the fire vanished, freeing its oddly unburned victims. Frowning in concentration and shaking with effort, Caroline manage to free the ice-imprisoned people as well, the ice turning liquid and flowing back to her, where it was absorbed into her outstretched fingers. She collapsed struggling to retain her consciousness. "Don't leave me. I've got nowhere else to go. Please!" Then she passed out. "Can you 'port three, Fuzzy?" "I'll have to try. We can't leave her here!"

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The x-men entered the warehouse cautiously, prepared to leap at an evil scientist at any moment. Shockingly, no one was there. There was the lone mastermold, just preparing to turn out two new Sentinels, a computer, and a giant pile of metal. Shadowcat looked at the computer screen. "Whoa. It's set on a program to build as many Sentinels as it can out of the metal, then self-destruct. No other information whatsoever on the computer, its hard drive was wiped clean." "So we don't have any idea who's behind this?" Colossus asked. "No clues at all." 'cat looked disheartened until Vampira shrugged and said. "If the world is safe for another day, how about we head home?" She looked down on her legs, dripping with blood. I'd kinda like to put something I go crazy." They all suddenly realized that Vampira's healing factor was not working, since if it were those cuts would have healed already. '_Does she even have temptations to drink her own blood?'_ "Uh, why aren't you healing?" Rachel asked haltingly. Because her powers stemmed not only from her mutation but also from a force of unnatural evil, her abilities were always an awkward subject with the evil-hating x-men. Driani shook her head "It's the, um, lack of blood. My quick convalesces is part of being a vampire, so without feeding the, uh, vampiric side of myself, I sort of lose some of my vampire powers." They looked less concerned so she went on. "Like, if I tried to morph back to human-form right now, I wouldn't be able to get back. Thinking of it, this could be a problem." To illustrate her point Driani morphed back to her shorter, paler form, than attempted to go back to her tall, dark form. Her skin visibly shuddered with an eerie quiver, then returned to normal. "I'd like to go back to the mansion, I don't feel well." Everyone agreed with her sentiment and went back to the jet, where they had a surprise visitor awaiting them.

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Back at the X-mansion, a figure finished attaching the last in a series of surveillance cameras and microphones he had set up. Then he slipped into the shadows and was gone.

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The teleporting back was a strain for all three of them, but especially Nightcrawler. Kurt was exhausted by the time they finally got home. It had taken about twenty or thirty 'ports, taking Wolverine forward, coming back for Caroline, bringing her forward, then repeating. And he still had to attend to the unconscious girl in the Med. Lab. He went to pick her up, but Wolverine stopped him. "I'll do it, bub. She doesn't need any tests, just a long nap. I'll put her in one o' the beds. You should go to bed yourself." "Not a bad idea, mein freund." Kurt dragged himself up to his room, too tired to teleport. Logan carried the sleeping girl into the infirmary and tucked her into one of the beds. _'Poor kid. Couldn't be more than fifteen. If she joins us, will she be hurt like we've all been hurt? Watch us die? It don't seem right to bring the poor kid inta' that, but its her decision. If she's smart and pulls out, we'll train her ta use her powers and Rach 'ill wipe her memory of us. God I hope she's smart.' _With that heartfelt sentiment, Logan went up to his room.

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Releasing her teammates from the telekinetic hold she had used to fly them back to the jet, Rachel set up a telepathic shield around the Blackbird that would make anyone nearby suddenly turn around and go back the way they came, having remembered something urgent they had to do. They entered the jet. Shadowcat waved at the purple-skinned creature in her chair, greeted her with a friendly, "What's up?", then did a double take. She really was exhausted to have not been on guard immediately. Incredulously she asked, "How did you get in?" Rogue walked in behind her, smiled and said "Ah think your in the wrong jet, sughah. You the new Avenger?" "No she isn't," Ororo put in, looking quizzical. The stranger had purple skin, wavy blue hair, and bright green eyes, not to mention delicate butterfly wings sprouting from her back. She wore jeans and a white tank top. "Sariceia Galigo, also known as Faerie, pleased to meet you." She uncrossed her legs and stood up. "You're the x-men, yes?" The group now assembled before her nodded numbly. _'Guess their jet was never broken into before.' _"I want to see Kurt. He knows me. I need a ride to the mansion. Do you guys know just how well that place is protected? It took me four months to figure out where the hell it was, and the last three I've been trying to break in. When it comes to security, you guys don't joke around!" The young woman grinned, enjoying the irony of the situation. Rachel attempted to probe her mind, only to come up against the mental equivalent of a brick wall. '_This girl is more than she seems.' _ "Yeah I am aren't I?" Sariceia laughed at the utter shock on Rachel's face. "I'm not a telepath. I have a keen intuition that let's me figure out what people are saying just by their facial expressions. That's not all I can do. Yes Kitty, my nails are naturally metallic purple. Can we go now?" Storm stepped forward as leader. "Yes, you may accompany us. On the condition that you allow Rachel to mind-scan you." 'A small smile replaced the bright grin on Sariceia's face. _'They can't know. I don't even know for sure.'_ Rachel felt the brick wall collapse, allowing her into the girl's mind. Sariceia led Rachel to the thoughts she was looking for, obscuring her view from ones that she'd rather keep to herself. But Rachel could see that Kurt really had known this woman, and from the many smiling images of himself beside a younger version of Sariceia, he would probably be glad to see her. She pulled out of the fairy's mind and glanced at Ororo, _'She's clear. I for one am intrigued to find out just who she is.' _Without a word to their mystery guest Ororo started the plan and headed back home.

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Sariceia was asked to wait in the living room while the x-men changed out of their uniforms and woke Kurt, but after all these years she couldn't wait a minute longer. She headed up the stairs and instantaneously knew which room was Kurt's. She opened the door, and sighed. He was every bit as handsome as he was when he left the circus three years ago. He was asleep, not on the bed as one might expect but precariously perched on five of the jungle-gym-like bars attached to his ceiling. She mentally pushed her feelings to the back of her head and thought of him only as her foster-brother and friend. This accomplished she flew up to the ceiling and knocked him down. The startled teleporter fell to the floor. "What do you want?" he looked hostile. She smiled and addressed him in German "Don't you remember me, Kurt? Maybe this will help." Despite the pain that increased in amounts each time she morphed, Sariceia resumed her human form. Kurt gasped. "Sar-Sar? Is it really you?" "Yeah. I missed you too." She leaped up to hug her, and the emotions she was suppressing grew stronger. Externally she didn't let her cheerful mask slip. "Do you think you can get on to your team?"

B Oots: Thanks so much for the review! It means a lot to me. I'm glad you like my story. Vampira and Wolverine will get along...eventually. I think. Can't give away all my secrets can I? ;-)

pantherpitcher32: I'm so glad you like Vampira! Marvel tends to use vampires only as villains, neglecting their potential as tragic heroes. I'd love to tell you more about why I created Driani, but it sort of gives away an important part of the plot so I'll fill you in later. Thanks so much for your kind words!


	8. Then there were three

Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks again for all the great reviews! On a darker note, I had to cut a couple of the characters I've been using. I don't want to use Rachel anymore since I don't know enough about her to do justice to who she is. Until I can get my hands on more comic books involving her, I'm sending her and Rogue to Muir Island for a hiatus starting in my next chapter. Jubilee is also away, studying at a private school somewhere with people her own age. There really is no decent way to explain any of that within my story so I won't; they'll just suddenly be gone. Eventually I hope to reintroduce them, (I've already got a plan for Jubes), but right now I'm having a hard enough time evolving all my characters as it is. So sorry to any fans of theirs, I like them too. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

On second thought, I could just keep them and not let them talk much. Would you all be okay with that? Let me know which you think is better, getting rid of them or ignoring them. Reviews are greatly appreciated.

Shocked by his young friend's request, Kurt met with his teammates to decide what to do with her. After calling everyone to the library on the intercom, Kurt thought about his history with Sariceia. A good friend of his foster mother Margali, who was called Riela, had found Sariceia in an orphanage in Romania when the girl was four. The people at the orphanage knew nothing about her family, or so they said. Riela had always wanted a daughter of her own and adopted Sariceia, taking her back to Germany where she worked designing the costumes for the performers of a circus. Margali's children JimaineStephen, and Kurt were older than Sariceia by four or five years, and usually excluded her from their games. She had grown up tagging along behind them, eventually joining two of the other girls her age in a tightrope act when Kurt started to perform on the trapeze. She had been an average looking girl with almond skin, honey-brown hair and nearly black eyes. Sariceia had always wanted to be like Jimainewho had only befriended her half the time, and was alternatively in love with Stephen or Kurt, until she turned fourteen and started to date another circus performed named Joseph. When they were in their late teens and their age gap didn't matter so much, Sariceia and Kurt had been friends, but he'd always treated her like his little sister. He didn't know what had happened to her after he left the circus, but she was here now. He wasn't sure that was a good thing.

When the team had gathered in its entirety, they began to debate the pros and cons of a new member. There were now six members, which was about as many as there had even been at one time. The theory of 'more is better' didn't always apply went fighting in a team. There was also the girl sleeping in the med. lab to deal with. If she joined, there would be ten x-men. They'd have to extend the blackbird, in addition to the training of two new members. Then there was even the issue of who they were exactly. The first girl seemed harmless enough and she truly did not have control of her powers, as Rachel's Psi-probe revealed, but no one knew where she could have come from. But she was only a kid in any event; it was Sariceia who was the real issue. As they knew from bitter experience, those few years that Kurt had been away were more than enough for any one of the x-men's many enemies to corrupt her and turn her into yet another evil foe to worry about. It was a little far-fetched, but that mental brick wall was a force to be contended with. Rachel was unable to determine the extent of her powers, if she was a 'puppet' of a stronger mutant, or even any of her history. The only telepath who had a shot was Professor Xavier, but he was currently living at Muir Island and was unavailable for consult. All they had to go on was Kurt's word and their own brief experience with her.

Driani didn't like Sariceia much from the short time she'd spent with her, but since the x-men had taken her in she did not want to argue against taking in others that might not have a place to go. Rachel and Kitty flat out didn't want her, Kitty disliking anyone who could break into the Blackbird with such contemptuous ease and Rachel suspicious of the mental wall the prohibited her from scanning Sariceia. Piotr and Rogue were neutral; they didn't really care on way or another. Logan knew that the bulk of her training in fighting would fall to him and didn't want another pupil, especially after the way his last student had turned out. He glared at Driani, wondering if she was arguing against him because she felt that way or just to oppose him. _'We could trade the new kid for Driani and send her back to Europe...' _Kurt didn't know what should be done. He liked her a lot and would enjoy getting to know her again, but didn't like the idea of putting someone his mother had used to regard as a niece in harm's way. His foster mother was not understanding about things like that; that last time she'd put him and all the x-men in a facsimile of Dante's hell when she'd believed that Kurt killed Stephen intentionally. That was not an experience he'd like to relive. Ororo spoke up. "I think that we should allow her to train with us on a probationary status, which enables us to ask her to leave at anytime if she doesn't mesh well with our existing team" Everyone agreed. A voice sung out from the doorway, "Great! When can I start?" Everyone stared at Sariceia. "How long have you been standing there?" "Only a couple of minutes. I came down when I finished all the magazines on the coffee table. If I'm in, then I'm going to go back to my hotel to get my stuff. I'll be back in an hour. See ya!" With a wave she strode down the hallway. In stunned silence the team watched her go. They had a new member. She obviously felt that she was here to stay.

Exactly as she had said, Sariceia was back an hour later with a suitcase and two duffel bags. Her taxi dropped her off at the entranceway. After he drove away she morphed and flew to the mansion. When her mutation had manifested, it appeared that morphing back and forth from human to faerie was easy, but in the past few years it had gotten harder and harder. Now it felt like every cell in her body was on fire, but the pain went away relatively soon. She thought that eventually she would be stuck in one form or the other, and didn't know which to choose. Of course, looking normal would be easier. She could probably get a job and eventually settle down to a very safe, very boring life, but probably make an existence for herself that would be fulfilling in the long run. Or she could remain purple-skinned and live with the x-men. Her life would be exciting but dangerous, and she'd never fit into mainstream society. She could go either way. The deciding factor was Kurt. She was in love with him, not the puppy love she'd had for him as a child but a deep passionate longing for him that she'd never had for anyone else. But if he wouldn't have her she would leave.

Entering the house, she found two of the female x-men in the kitchen, preparing dinner. "Hey What'cha cooking?" They stared at her warily. One of the girls spoke. "Various stuff. We've all got different dietary restrictions, cooking here is complicated. Speaking of which, anything you want?" "I'm not really hungry. Do you want help?" "No we're fine." The other girl had replied. "Okay. I'll see you later." Sariceia liked meeting new people, but these girls didn't seem especially eager to get to know her. They would come around eventually. Her ability to charm objects was mutation-based, but charming people had always been natural to her. She went upstairs to where she'd found Kurt's room before. In a wing adjacent to the residential hallway she found guest rooms. Putting her stuff down in one of them, she took a shower and then changed into one of her black nightgowns. Black matched best with her outré looks. Lying down on the bed she went to sleep, but with the uncomfortable feeling that she was being watched. She ignored her intuition and went to sleep. In a few weeks she might regret that decision.

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Dinner was very awkward that night. Besides the usually tension of Driani's and Logan's ongoing feud, there was the issue of the two new girls sleeping in the house at that very minute. No one spoke. Kitty was sitting next to Piotr, and it appeared to their teammates that they would probably start dating again soon. Logan and Driani sat at opposite ends of the table so as better to glare at each other. The other x-men were getting tired of their constant bickering but they were two of the most formidable members the team had ever had and no one wanted to confront them. Kurt was deep in thought over the appearance of the mysterious girl from his past. Ororo switched on the television. A news program came on. The newscaster was interviewing an author on their newest book. It wasn't interesting sounding so she turned it off. If she hadn't, the x-men would have learned about their newest threat; that writer claimed to be working on an exposé with inside information on one of New York's most mysterious super-groups....

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Logan woke up at one in the morning as he sometimes did. He went downstairs to the kitchen and got a beer. Upstairs, his least favorite teammate was also awake. Driani wanted a cup a tea, which was exceedingly strange for several reasons. She had never liked tea before, much less know how to prepare it. She also had a vague notion that she should not go downstairs in just her skimpy nightgown but put on a robe, which seemed like a memory from living in a dormitory. Of course Driani had never done that. These memories must be from the girl whom she'd had that..._interesting_ exchange with. Now she wasn't sure that it had been fair to do that to the poor little mortal, but then again that might be thoughts the girl herself had given to Driani... So many questions. She knew that who she was now, her personality, was not who Driani had used to be. Whoever she was she was not Stephen's Driani. That didn't seem to matter right now. She was who she was, and that person wanted tea. Deciding to go with the robe thing, she found a black silky wrap and experimented with tying it like a sari, a Greek toga, or half a dozen other ways she'd learned in her travels before deciding on just wrapping it around her shoulders.

Making her way to the to the kitchen, she sensed someone's presence. To her horror it was the one x-man she had hated at first sight. Wolverine. She glared at him, very glad for her wrap. Her costume for fighting with the team was slightly revealing, tight black leather with a cloak, but she'd as soon have Logan see her pajamas as get caught in the noon sun. He felt just as happy to see her. Without a word she went to the cabinet and started to look for tea, which to her surprise she found. As she stood on tiptoe to get the teapot down from the hook it hung on above the sink she could feel him staring at her. Driani wondered if he felt the same way she did; that the other person was attractive but there was something about them that they hated. Putting the tea on the stove to boil she sat down at the table across from him. She felt like she should say something but didn't know what. He felt the same but didn't bother to ponder his words. "Dri, why do I hate you?" "I was going to ask you the same question Logan. But we do and that's that." "Shame, really." "Yes." The teapot shrilled that the tea was ready. Any compassion she might have felt for him was destroyed when he grinned wickedly and pulled her shawl off as she got up, exposing her lacy black gown. Not hesitating, she scooped up her wrap and tied it around his eyes before he got a good look at her body. Taking her tea with her she went back upstairs, leaving Logan to question his recent actions for another hour before sleep claimed him.

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The next day Sariceia woke up early. It was a glorious day, bright sunshine and a pleasant breeze. She was hungry but felt funny about raiding the kitchen of people she didn't know well, so decided to have breakfast later and go sit by the lake. She put on denim shorts and a T-shirt from out of her bag, grabbed a towel from her bathroom to sit on, and a book she had been reading by K.M. Bennet. Silently slipping through the halls of the still sleeping mansion, she made her way outside. After an hour of reading she turned around to find Kurt coming towards her. He still took her breath away. She'd found him attractive since she was a preteen, but when her mutant intuition kicked in she had known he was the one for her. It was strange, really, that she loved him so completely and utterly after not seeing him for all these years. But she wasn't going to let him know until she had some shard of proof that he might feel the same way for her. Until then, she would play the part of his little sister. He sat down on the grass next to her. "Hey, Sar-sar. Sleep well?" His use of her babyish nickname tormented her. "Yeah. You?" Before he started to answer she cut him off. "I guess you want to know what happened to me after you left." Kurt was mystified. "For one thing, my mutant powers include intuition. I can almost tell what people are thinking by reading their body language. Where shall I start?" "Why not begin when I left." "Okay. Well, after you went after Stephen, Jimaine left about a week later. I guess you know that by now. Margali felt that all three of her children were lost to her and didn't want to see me anymore. Riela was dead by then, did you know that?" Kurt shook his head sadly. "So all three of my mentors and both my mothers were gone. The stress of that must have been what caused my mutation to develop, giving me the ability to became what I am now." She gestured at herself, at her sparkling violet skin, sea-blue hair, transparent glimmering wings. "In addition to my intuitive six sense I can sometimes charm things into doing what I want. That's how I opened the door to the Blackbird. I used to be able to morph back and forth to my human shape, but I'm losing that skill. Anyway, with my newfound talents I was able to take over your trapeze act. It wasn't as good as yours, but I eventually became the star of the show." "But how did you find us?" "Shh, I'm getting there!" She smiled. "I was in Romania looking for my family again. You know all about my attempts at that." She'd been traveling to Romania every so often for years trying to find her birth parents. "Word spread of the vampire couple that was surrounded by a growing mob. I joined a group going to Driani's castle. I saw you there, and have been following you ever since. You people keep yourselves well hidden, but when I finally pinpointed your location I took my chances breaking into the jet. And here I am." Sariceia lay back down on her towel. Kurt reclined beside her. "That's really something. It hasn't been easy for you has it?" "No, but it's been interesting." _'And it definitely will get more interesting if I'm going to be an x-man...'_


	9. Turn of events, for the better

**Author's note: **hey guys! On the advice of Pantherpitcher32 (thanks so much for the reviews! Your support means so much to me! You too B Oots! Clues to the identity of the camera-installer in this chapter...)****I'm keeping the other characters. So if I don't mention them, know that they are still there just, uh, hiding. Unless I come up with a brilliant plot that involves the not being there... Also, I've abandoned any attempts at following the Marvel continuum. I took some of the characters but some of them and all the plots are completely my own. I may 'borrow' some events or explanations from the comic books, but chances are that they won't fit in with any other events. Sorry to confuse you. I know I've foreshadowed half a dozen plot lines, they are all coming together I promise. Just gotta put 'em into words and type it up. Thinking in comic illustration format is bad. Anything to apologize for: not for lack of trying, but I cannot write in accents. That was always one of my favorite parts of the comic books, how everyone talked different, but I just can't. Maybe you can pretend that the characters are speaking in dialect... Enjoy!

She was right. I did get very interesting, very soon. Beginning with her first ever Danger Room training session. She was wearing the standard issue x-men costume, and though it was despised by all the female members of the team for its ugliness it looked lovely on Sariceia with its tight fight. She had decided to use her stage name Faerie as her codename. "All right faireey girl let's see what you can do!" Logan was taunting her. He would not be easy to deal with, in fact not of the x-men would be at first, but they'd come around. She wasn't sure if she could charm people as well as objects or if her charisma was natural, but these people would be her friends before they knew it. Until then, she could tease back. Stepping towards Wolverine, she leaned into his face and glared at him. "Hey, it's FA-RAY, got it?" This guy was obviously used to intimidating people and seemed vaguely shocked that she had stood up to him. Flashing him a grin Sariceia turned and looked at the other mutants. Shadowcat and Storm were stretching while Colossus ran through some brief warm-ups. Nightcrawler teleported down from the control booth where Caroline was watching, after setting up the program to equip seven mutants with foes to fight. Driani morphed into Vampira, who appeared to be a totally different woman. She was now taller and darker, looking quite formidable in her black costume with the cape/shawl thing. She'd be fun to get to know.

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Driani herself was miserable. She needed blood. She'd never gone this long without it before, but oddly didn't want to hurt anybody. She truly was not herself. Stephen and Driani had never known the full extent of their vampiric abilities, or really cared. They just had fun, and making the comatose girl hold her soul for her had been fun at the time. But it certainly wasn't now. Driani had now idea who she was. Her old persona would not have hesitated to continue with her diet. She would not have even been ashamed of telling her friends about it. Not now. The odd memories and knowledge that were not her's ere coming more and more often now. Her personality and emotions were hopelessly confused. How did it effect her to have a soul and not a spirit? Eventually she'd want to, _need_ to, be whole; she'd have to take back that battered spirit and deal with the pain of her lover's death. Until then, she would be a x-man, attempt to atone for the terrible things she had done. But without her drinking, how could she? Her problems would soon be solved, though perhaps not in the method of her choosing. No, definitely not the way she would have chose.

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Enigma bided her time. She was recuperating from her transverse home and wanted to be at full strength before she confronted these people. On behalf of her host body she would have vengeance on the vampire girl, and whoever was close to her. The vampiress had caused Enigma considerable inconvenience. When an entity such as she wanted to manifest itself it did not like to be stopped. And this girl had stopped her. And she would pay. Oh yes, she would pay.

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Back at the x-mansion Faerie was discovering that this whole fighting thing was much harder then it seemed. She was holding her own against the various holographic foes that assailed her, but barely. Her flexibility and acrobatic training were the only weapons in her arsenal, unlike the rest of the x-men who had years of fighting experience. She paused briefly to look up at the observation booth where the teenage watched them. Poor kid, she-. A fatal mistake. The virtual villain attacking her gained the advantage and pinned her, positioning its knife for the killing strike... when it disappeared. Thank god for those safety locks. The other mutants looked around to see why their own sparring partners were gone, and spotted Sariceia still lying on the floor, totally exhausted. She sat up wearily. "Don't say anything. I'm bad at this. I'll get better. Start it up again." Logan smirked, but everyone else just looked disgruntled that their session had been cut short. "Frankly, I'm surprised the pixie lasted this long." Ignoring him, Nightcrawler turned to Faerie. "Actually, me too. When did you learn to fight?" "Never, it's all natural. Give me a minute and I'll start over." No you won't. Go take a shower. You're in no condition to train anymore today." "I am too and I will. Start it up again." "No, it isn't safe for you." "I'm not your little sister anymore you can't boss me around!" Her emerald green eyes turned dark and stormy. With a wave of her hand she coaxed the machines into starting up again, with the safety locks on minimum. She could and in all likelihood would get hurt, but didn't care. This was one more test to prove herself. She would pass. Forced to turn their attention back to the robots and such now assaulting them at greater power the x-me couldn't watch Faerie. This time she didn't think at all, about anything. There were instincts in her she never knew about, and they were kicking into high gear. Flying kicks, triple punches in the blink of an eye, dodging and attacking, it all came to her effortlessly. It was incredible. She didn't notice when the other x-men shut down their own programs to watch her until they shut off hers too. "Liar. Nobody fights like that naturally. I know." Vampira did not like having her place as the new girl taken. Especially by this little imp, her antithesis in every single way. "Do you? Well, you learn something new everyday. Kurt can tell you about that." With a pointed look at the blue-furred mutant she waltzed out of the danger room. Shadowcat looked at Wolverine. "And you didn't want to train her. She's already trained. She just needs to be tamed" "He can't do it. And I'm not going to. Let's ditch her." Driani made her feelings on the subject of Sariceia known. Naturally Logan defended his ability to train anyone he wanted to. Before they knew it they were in another full blown fight. Just as they prepared to start swinging at each other, which would have had disastrous results for both them and anyone who tried to stop them, Sariceia walked back into the room. "Do they do this often? By the way Kitty, I heard that." "Yeah they do. What about it?" Rachel was curious; Sariceia spoke like their quarreling surprised her. Sari laughed. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. They don't know that they are perfect for each other?" Driani and Logan stopped dead and yelled in unison, "WE ARE NOT!" "Uh, yeah you are. I can see it. Rachel you're a telepath, right? Show them what I see." "I'll try. What do you see?" "This." With the mental wall down, Rachel easily pulled herself, Logan, and Driani into the faerie's mind. It wasn't represented by physical things the way minds sometimes were; just empty space with the emotions Logan and Driani felt for each other laid out for both to see. She'd completely blocked them off from anything personal, showing them only that her intuition, which was never wrong, said Wolverine and Vampira were in love. She supplied a list to them of the many things they subconsciously loved about each other. They had hated each other because each felt that the other was too much like them, both valued their uniqueness. Driani's suspicions were right; Logan was physically attracted to her just was she was to him. Rachel's astral form projected into Sariceia's head smiled and vanished, leaving Logan and Driani to further look through the things Faerie knew about them. Sariceia watched them for a minute, then pushed them out back into the physical world. They stared at each other for a moment, then started kissing. Everyone in the room except Rachel and Sariceia gasped. Ororo walked up to the new team member. "I don't know how you did that, but on behalf of all of us I would like to sincerely thank you." Rogue added, "They were always fighting, and it got to be real annoying. They probably still will be, but if they actually like each other now... wow. I just can't believe it!" Sariceia smiled. "Your welcome. I think we should leave them alone, don't you?" Everyone turned towards the new couples, who were now making out passionately, then quickly left the room. Driani and Logan didn't even notice.

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Caroline was terrified. Having seen these people in action, she was no longer sure that she was better off here than in a foster home. She hadn't really loved her now-dead aunt. The woman had only taken care of her for the money she got from Caroline's mother's will. She had loved her mother, but she was too was long gone. Her powers had manifested not out of grief for her aunt but out of shock at having nowhere else to go. The power thing was kind of neat. She made a miniature ice sculpture form on her finger, then melted it with the fire. She now could control it, but had a feeling that if she were upset she'd have a repeat episode of what happened outside her school. One of them would probably come up to talk to her soon, ask if she wanted to join. The people didn't bother her, even the blue one, except that they were so much more sophisticated. To learn to fight like they did and to defend mutants everywhere would be fascinating and a good cause to devote her life to, but she did not have what it took. Not at all. Caroline was not gorgeous like these beautiful women in the room in below her. She had was neither tall nor short, her figure was not the best, and her bland looking brown hair did not suit her mediocre skin toning. Her sparkling brown eyes would have been her best features if not for the fact that they were different shapes, giving her a witchy possessed look when she smiled. One round eye and one almond-shaped. It was almost like a split personality thing, the cool person that the almond eye might belong to, and the geeky but happy girl who might have had the round one. She thought little of herself and her skills, especially in comparison to the x-men. They were all older than she was, too. Shadowcat couldn't be more than a year or two her senior, but was so much more mature that she could be ten years old. But Caroline couldn't just run away. She'd wait and see what they wanted her to do.

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They were paid well for their work, just as they should be, what with the hassle of getting plans for cheap sentinels and the trouble of bugging. They would continue to be paid as long as Karen got the video and tape from the cameras and microphones in the mansion. It was interesting stuff. Who would have thought that freaks actually try to live like normal people, with complex relationships and what not? The two men liked Karen and what she was doing, exposing those filthy mutants. It was one of the best jobs they'd pulled off yet. How long they'd be able to pull it off was anyone's guess.

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Sariceia took off her perspiration drenched uniform and stepped into her shower. She stayed in faerie form, since morphing was so painful she chose to do it only when necessity required it. Her skin cells flipped inside out, her wings pulling themselves from deep inside her spine. Soon she wouldn't be able to do it at all, as the pain grew worse and worse each time. Her decision depended not on whether she got the job as an x-man, but entirely on Kurt. She'd been so angry when he'd used that tone to tell her to leave. His big-brother-protecting-little-sister tone. She would have to make him see her as a woman, as his equal, before she could even begin to start discovering if he had romantically inclined feelings towards her. It was such a long road when she wanted him as her boyfriend _now_. But she'd come off pretty well with the fighting and the matchmaking. Her skill scared her a little, the knowledge that she had capabilities she was completely unaware of. The moves had just come to her naturally. Same with knowing that Logan and Driani should be together. She had known that they weren't cognizant of their feelings for each other, but she had no idea that they'd do _that_ just because she told them they didn't really hate each other. It made her jealous. If only she could do that with Kurt... aside from telling her that she loved him, her sixth sense gave her no clues as to if he loved her back or even if he might grow to love her in time. It had chosen a hard time to be picky about what information it gave out. Of course, he was now mad at her for showing him up when he told her to leave. She'd have to apologize. Her obstacles in this relationship were few but huge ones:

He probably still saw her as a little girl, and

Amanda.

Err. Amanda. Jimaine had been Sariceia's role model, but it wasn't a job the sorceress had chosen for herself. It wasn't even that Sariceia admired that many of her qualities, just her ability of making Kurt fall in love with her. Something that, at this point, it looked doubtful that Sariceia would ever be able to do. But she'd never given up before, at anything. Well, there were some things. Things she'd rather not think about.

But the first step she had to take was to get good at this super-hero thing.

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When the immediate joy at their realization had worn off, Driani and Logan went back to staring at each other, though not as they had before. For one thing, they were no longer glaring, but the much more noticeable fact was that they were not yards apart, but standing rather close. Very close, so that when Logan leaned over to kiss Driani he didn't have far to reach at all. She closed her eyes and kissed back but then pulled away. "Don't you think we should, um, talk about this?" '_That's the women, always want to talk when there's more fun stuff to do. But she is right.' _"Sure darlin', what about?" She laughed. "Sit down with me." She pulled him down to sit next to her on the Danger room floor. "So, just 'cause she told us to, we _like_ each other now?" He feigned disappointment. "You only _like_ me? From the way you were kissing me a minute ago I'd have guess otherwise." Driani slapped him playfully. "Shut up. Just because I love you doesn't mean that I don't still hate you. But that doesn't make any sense does it? All the things I still disliked you for are still there, just they don't seem as important as the things about you that I hadn't realized." "Yeah. I still think feel like I ought to hate you, but why did we hate each other in the beginning anyway? I don't get it." "I don't either. I can tell you that I hated you because I was scared when you came here in the middle of the night, and I don't like to be scared. Everything else sort of piled onto that. This is entirely too confusing, and since I too want to get back to what we were doing a minute ago," she moved into his lap. "Let's figure it out later, shall we?" Logan didn't respond. At least not verbally. He couldn't, as his lips were quickly busy with something else.

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She was alone in the dark. The room had no windows or door. She was kneeling on a hard wooden floor, dressed in black silk. Before her was a paper, fine parchment, written on in blood in a language older than Sanskrit. With whose blood? Her own. Her arms were cut in elaborate designs from her wrists up to her shoulder, as well as on her lower legs, waist and back, all the wounds bleeding slowly. The centers of the whorls on each of her fingertips were pricked deep and bleed profusely. It was sickening. She tried to move but froze, her limbs sore as though she'd been stationary for hours. She had been sitting without any sign of activity for longer than she could have ever guessed. A force she did not know of had decided that it was time for her to move again.

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I hope I didn't gross anybody out with either the kissing or the bleeding part. It wasn't my intention for it to be quite so graphic, but it couldn't be helped. It's gonna get worse before it gets better. I don't know if that's good or bad. I know for a fact that there is worse stuff out there. My secret is out; I dreamed up Driani for the sole purpose of being Wolvie's girlfriend. (Who wants to guess who Faerie is for?) It was right after I read the book in which Mariko dies and I was just too fed up with Marvel torturing him. Though I may have to torture him a little myself before I'm through... Please review. It's what writers live for. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	10. Elaborations

Author's Note: Hey readers! During a particularly depressing school retreat I had several hours to plot out the next oh say thirty chapters, so don't expect this story to wrap up soon. If anything, it's about to get loads more complex. I apologize for foreshadowing so many events, several of which won't come up for a while because of who they involve and how characters need to be gracefully introduced. I'd love to just have a mutant convention and make the x-men hire their new couple members in one chapter, but I need to space things out. Maybe I'll do the mutant convention anyway... it could be fun. I'd also like to beg forgiveness for the poor quality of writing of this chapter and probably the next one too; they are just filler and background information for the better exciting chapters to come. Bare with me, things are starting to get really good soon I promise. Enjoy!

Oh one other thing, I sorta left Caroline hanging in the observation booth. So this next paragraph takes place before the last one from chapter nine, then the rest will come the day after. Sorry to confuse you.

Caroline was used to this feeling, the notion that some people were so much cooler than she was she shouldn't even bother attempting to make friends with them. Certain kids at school, summer camp, everywhere, they just had a charisma that drew others but told Caroline to stay away. It was likely something of an inferiority complex. But she'd never met people as awesome as these x-men. In particular the platinum-haired women who now entered the observation booth. "Hello Caroline. I am Ororo, also known as Storm. I lead the x-men. What did you think of our training session?" She sat down in the chair next to Caroline. "Um. Wow. It was amazing. But I really don't see a place for me here." Ororo could see from the girl's posture how nervous she was. "True. I am unsure as to what should be done. You want to stay here, there is no home to return to?" "Nothing and no one. Except another foster home, I guess." Storm's formal word usage impressed Caroline. Nobody else talked like this. Her African accent was beautiful. "If you wish to stay here, we could set up a sort of school for you, perhaps even recruiting other mutants of your own age. As of yet I have not discussed this with the others." "Would I be, like, an honorary X-man? That'd be cool. I don't care much about classes, but I guess I've got to finish high school for state requirements and all." "Yes, you do. I don't know about being an honorary x-man though. It's a very dangerous profession and, oh my. I didn't realize they were still, ahem, here. Shall we leave?" Storm had looked through the glass to see Driani and Logan who were still...there. "Yeah, lets." They departed to the library to discuss the rest of Caroline's future.

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After finally managing to pull herself away from Logan, Driani went up to her room to prepare for bed. She was exhausted and incredibly confused. She was so happy with Logan, and knew that she owed Faerie big time for setting the two of them up, but also felt un-loyal to Stephen. _'I mean, shouldn't I still be in mourning for him? I spend over a hundred years with him, and then I pick up with the next hot guy I meet? Ooh, but he _**is** _hot isn't he.'_ Driani closed her eyes and enjoyed the memory of Wolverine's arms around her. He was so different from her former lover, but in many ways he had more in common with her. They were two of a kind in many ways; on the outside they looked like heartless warriors, but inside they could both be sentimental saps sometimes. He was so perfect. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen it before. _'Focus, Dri-girl. Is this an okay thing to do? Date Wolvie and forget Stephen?'_ Of course it was. She was a vampire after all, notorious throughout literature and mythology for their lust and at times selfishness. Dri was a vampire, wasn't she? She wasn't the mysterious gothic beauty that vampiresses were supposed to be. Lately she'd felt like maybe she didn't want to be a bloodsucker anymore. Being evil didn't fit in with the mission statement of the x-men. She could get used to that, to going back to who she'd been when she was a mortal. Driani had always had doubts about whether she'd gone willingly to be Stephen's vampire bride, wondered if he'd messed with her memories to make stay with him, but she'd loved him to much to care. Even that was doubtful, since couldn't one as powerful as he manipulate her feelings as well? Yet whether she wanted to be a vampire or not really didn't matter any more, since she really had no control over it. There was nothing she could do to stop her bloodlust. She still couldn't trust herself that she might get too close to someone when she was hungry, which was all the time now that she'd 'given up' killing. If she heard someone's blood pumping through their veins during a moment of weakness, she might attack them, no matter who they were. She scratched the scabs on her legs from her fight with the sentinels. Then her powers would come back, among them her healing abilities. Currently her powers were waning, and her body wanted desperately for her to do something about that. This could present a problem, especially if she were going to be kissing Logan as frequently as she hoped to be doing from now on.

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Despite the late hour Kitty, Jubilee, and Peter were still in the rec. room. Jubilee was finishing a history paper for the correspondence course she used to fulfill her high school requirements, as she'd opted not to attend the local high school. If this icy/fire girl joined they might start a real school here. Jubs didn't know how she felt about that. At twenty two Peter had already graduated, and Kitty had finished early by taking an equivalency test instead of senior year. This new mutant thing wasn't going to effect them, unless they were tagged to be teachers. _'I shouldn't sulk that I want to stay the baby. Because I don't, do I? Ugh. But it's not like this place wasn't hectic enough.' _

Her contemplations were far from Kitty's and Peter's minds. Which wasn't to say that the two older mutants didn't have problems. Their relationship had always been rocky, but they seemed to have reached a temporary plateau with no ups or downs. Kitty was pretty sure that what she felt for Peter now was real, but it hadn't been all that long ago that he'd told her he didn't love her. Even if he did now, was she comfortable with him being fickle enough to drop her and then want to continue their relationship like nothing had happened? But he was here, right now, with his arm draped over her shoulders. Snuggling closer, she put her deep thoughts of the future aside and decided to enjoy him right now, regardless of how long-term their relationship was going to be.

The Asian teenager sitting behind her thought that that was probably a good idea. As with all the various couples within the x-men and their associate teams, she was torn between being happy for her friends and being bitterly jealous. She was sixteen and hadn't had a boyfriend since before she joined this band of hooligans three years ago. Maybe if they recruited more kids, there'd be some guys...? _'Guess this school thing could be okay...'_

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For the first time in the two days since she'd been 'rescued' Caroline had a chance to think over the recent events in her life in their entirety. These x-men people were really something. They wanted to take her in, help her deal with her power. That would be good, since right now half of Caroline's room was covered in ice that she couldn't seem to melt. She didn't want to bother Ororo again, since the weather witch had attempted to put out the fire on her carpet just half an hour ago. The rains Storm created didn't effect the fire in the least, so Caroline had tried to cover it ice. That had resulted in her being stuck to the floor as she way now. She didn't mind, since it didn't feel cold to her. _'So, forty eight hours ago I was your average teen, and now I'm a super hero in training?'_ She could get used to that. Just like she'd adapted to the five foster homes with their various dysfunctional families. The people here seemed like they were family to each other, but as to how well they functioned Caroline could only guess at this point. Would she become part of it? And be hurt again when they dumped her? No. Not again. If at any point in time during her stay here she felt unwanted, Caroline promised herself to be on the first train out of here. But until then, she could handle living in a mansion with the most incredible people she'd ever met. Yeah, that'd be okay for a while.

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"Hey. Can I come it?" Sariceia knocked on Kurt's door. "Ja. What do you want?" He wasn't as angry as she'd thought he'd be. "Are you mad? I'm sorry I didn't leave, but I knew I could do better." _'Idiot! Apologizing like a little girl! Great way to make him fall for you.'_ "It's okay, leichben. I was a bit harsh. But what you've done for Logan and Driani makes up for everything. Their fighting was getting to be a pain for everyone." He grinned devilishly in an expression that always made Sariceia's heart melt, but she didn't show it. She was an excellent actress, a born performer. She briefly wondered if that could be a mutation too. "Yes, that did work out well didn't it? So, I was wondering, what have you heard from Jimaine or Margali lately?" The smile left his face to be replaced with a puzzled frown. "I've no idea where mother is, she comes and goes according to her own whims. Jimaine called herself Amanda Sefton for a while, but she's in a bit of a fix currently." Sariceia suppressed the urge to laugh at the terrible fate of Jimaine she hoped Kurt would tell her of. "What happened to her?" "She is now the sole guardian of a demonic demension called Limbo. She calls herself Magik. I don't get to see her much anymore." Sariceia's jaw dropped. "That's a shame. Uh, do you guys regularly deal with alternate demensions and such?" "Yeah all the time. It's no big thing around here."

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"Goddess, this is going to be so much work!" Ororo lay on her bed while her friend Rogue braided her long white hair. Rogue was wearing gloves so as not to accidentally absorb Ororo's psyche and powers. "Yeah, sughah. At least the girl can got to the local high school here, cause we sure can't teach her academics. I don't even know what we can do about controlling her powers." "It's not just her, there as so many mutants manifesting everyday. Of course, it's only the extreme cases like Caroline's that we need to worry about, but we still might have to have several of them live here. The school is the only place equipped to train mutants." Rogue finished one braid and started another. "So it'll be kinda like the New Mutants." Storm craned her neck around to look at Rogue. "What's that?" "Ooh, sorry I forgot you weren't here then. The X-men from another timeline got stuck here once. They're similar to us, except several of our missions turned out really different for them. At one point they started a team of kids called the New Mutants. I'm all done, what do you think?" Ororo inspected her hair in her mirror. "I suppose Caroline's team would be like this New Mutants. And thank you anyway, but I really don't like my hair in braids. It reminds me of that time I was a vampire." The irony of how that statement, while completely true, was rather unusual made both of them collapse into laughter.

Brilliant idea on my part: If these x-men aren't part of the Marvel universe, I can do whatever I want with them!!! Sort of. For the most part I'll try to keep true to the comics.

One last thing, I'm bashing on Amanda Sefton here in this fic. I have nothing against her, I'm actually quite a fan of her, but I like Sariceia better. Of course, since I created Faerie and all, she is more or less perfect in my eyes. This is a little biased I know. Didn't mean to offend anybody; I try to avoid negatively depicting any characters who I dislike, and when I can't do that I don't include them. I mean do you see Scott, Jean, or Xavier here? Sorry once again. I'll go into what I do and don't like about them another time. I'm finish now before you all really hate me. Bye!


	11. Trials and Mysteries

Disclaimer: Dude, I don't own the x-men. Do we really need to go over this again?

There have been a lot of random filler conversations lately, and I sincerely apologize for the lack of interesting plot development. It's coming soon, there's a bit in this chapter and loads more in the ones to come. Also, the dialogue is pretty crummy. I'm working on it. Bear with me.

It was another training session in the danger room for the rest of the X-men, but for their newest member, Caroline; it was her very first with the team. She was wearing the black and gold uniform she'd just been issued, like the one that Faerie wore. Shadowcat, Colossus, Wolverine, Vampira, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Rogue all wore their individual costumes. _'Guess I'll need a codename too.' _"Ready guys?" Rachel was running the session from the control booth. Caroline nodded. The program was set to go easy on her, and she had instructions to freeze anything that came at her. She still didn't know the extent of her powers, but she had confidence in what she did know about them. The ice didn't hurt people, but wouldn't melt. The fire acted like normal fire, but was harder to control. It was all so confusing. She'd been in here before for two or three warm ups but this was her first time with the team. "Start it up Ray!" The guy with the claws winked at her. "Don't worry kid. Ya get used to it. Nobody's died in here before." Before Caroline could come up with a witty remark, the session started. She didn't have time to see how the others were doing; she was too busy dodging the things flying at her. Then her instincts kicked in. Not fighting instincts like the rest of them seemed to have. She just put up an ice shield. That left her two things to improve: fighting villains and snappy remarks to say while doing so. She was neither achieving her practice 'mission' nor impressing the others. But she was alive and more or less safe. That was good. Inside her un-meltable igloo, Caroline laughed.

So did the rest of the X-men, when the session was finished. At her. Caroline was trapped in her igloo and inexplicably couldn't melt it or summon fire to do so. It was pretty funny at first. After letting Caroline yell at them, or rather wave her arms at them since they couldn't hear her through the ice, Wolverine cut a hole for her to get out. Glaring, Caroline spat out "People, this is not funny. **This stuff doesn't melt, and I can't control it!**Sure, you can cut through it this time, but what about this?" Caroline raised her arm in front of her and an enormous ice block appeared, narrowly missing encasing Rogue. "This is dangerous! Hello, am I doomed to always be playing the adult in these kind of situations?" _'I'm totally freaking out on these people who just saved me from the foster care system. But how can they be so dense?!'_ The x-men looked at her in stunned and puzzled silence. Wasn't this girl supposed to be shy? A little while ago she'd been nervous about her first Danger Room session. Now she was a total spaz, though her reasons were actually sound. "I'm locking myself in my room until I can do something about this, because you guys obviously aren't." With that peculiar statement Caroline left the danger room. _'Why do so many bizarre scenes take place in this damned room?' _Kitty wondered. Aside from the many, many villains and possessed friends who had previously used this room against them, for the classic "Brwahaha I'm going to kill the X-men in their own danger room!" there'd been the 'Driani is a really good fighter' episode, the 'Faerie points out that Logan and Driani are in love' event, and now the 'shy new member tells off senior teammates' incident. But then again, with the kind of weird life the X-men led, was it really that much of a surprise that the various team members acted strangely so often? The weather goddess looked thoughtful. "Hmm. She does sort of have a point. Anyone know how to train ice/fire mutants? What'd they do for people like Bobby and Pyro?" No one knew. "Perhaps we should call someone, like the Professor or Moria?" Kurt responded to Ororo's question. "Actually, we might want to look into finding a permanent doctor too. We've been lucky these past few months, but in our profession we have a tendency of getting severely injured on a regular basis. I can tend most minor problems, but any thing big would require more training than I've got." "Anybody in mind, 'crawler?" Wolverine seemed skeptic but Kurt continued. "There is a woman, Doctor Kayla Keiting I think her name is. I'm pretty sure she's a mutant, though she's not powerful enough to come up on Cerebro's warning program. Kitty, have you heard of her?" "She's got limited telekinetic powers but at a molecular level, so she's doing extensive research on disease cures. She could probably help Caroline." "Let's pay her a visit." "Right. So we waltz into the apartment of one of the world's most brilliant scientists and offer to let her be our multi-purpose doctor, then ask her to train a psycho teenager in her lethal mutant powers?" Rachel was more skeptical than Logan was. "Yeah. It's worth a try." The phasing mutant grinned wickedly. "I can dig up enough stuff on her to make her beg to join us." The telekinetic telepath shrugged nonchalantly. "Okay. By the way, hacking is wrong. So is blackmail." "Uh-huh. I know."

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The following note appeared on Caroline's door, frozen to the wood.

_Sorry I freaked out at you guys. This whole mutant super hero thing is still a shock for me. I'm used to taking care of myself. Don't worry. I'll be out in a couple days, when I put out the fire. _

Carry 

Sariceia had pointed it out to Kurt after they'd gotten changed back into civvies. He stood there frowning at it. "I think we should just let her be. She'll come out when she's ready. In the meantime, do you want to go see the Keiting woman?" Kurt smiled at her. "I think it's best to call her Dr. Keiting if we want her to help us, but yes, let's go."

As she had promised, Kitty did some extensive research on the doctor. She briefed Kurt and Sariceia in the garage. It wasn't a real mission; jets and uniforms were unnecessary. "She's got degrees in medicine and psychology, and is currently working independently in her own lab. Kayla has vehemently denied being a mutant or having any mutant family members several times, but here's the kicker: her sister is a mutant who discorrporated herself not longer ago."

The door bell rung. Sighing, Kayla Keiting put down the microscope and glanced at the display next to her to see who was at the door. No one she knew, but heck she needed a break. Being able to mentally manipulate molecules didn't make it any easier on her eyes. She walked out of her lab, the door sealing shut behind her as always. Maximum security, nobody could ever break into her workspace. Shrugging off the lab coat she finally got to the door. "Hello?" "Good evening Dr. Keiting. May we come in?" There were three people, two women and the man who had just addressed her. Something wasn't right about him, but she didn't feel threatened. "Of course." When he got closer to her she was able to distinguish the anomaly. He was using some sort of image inducer, what she saw was not his true form. The molecules were wrong. Who were these people? "Have a seat. What do you want?" They sat. One of the women spoke now. "Dr. Keiting, are you familiar with the mutant phenomena?" Kayla smiled. She was almost relieved. They were blackmailing her. It wasn't like it hadn't happened before. Even that woman who offered to help her write a tell-all book about her mutation, K.M. Bennet (1). She pulled out her checkbook. "How much do you want? I'm still working on the cancer cure but this account can't be traced." They looked startled. She laughed humorlessly. "Let's be blunt, people. I'm a wealthy woman. I'm accustomed to having my secrets held over my head. Out of curiosity's sake what kind of information do you have on me?" The woman who hadn't spoken yet was attempting to hide a smile, the other two looked shocked. "We weren't blackmailing you. But you are a mutant, yes?" "Of course I am, idiot. And so are you, aren't you. I though mutants were supposed to 'stick together' and here some of my own kind attempt to bribe me. Drop the image alteration, I can tell it's fake." Kurt glanced at Sariceia. She nodded. "Why not? I will too." Pressing the buttons on his wrist that Kayla had assumed to be a watch Kurt dropped the illusion. Sari shuttered for a moment and then wings sprouted from her back. Kayla was mildly surprised. "Well, well, X-men. You're Night...something with a c, and I don't believe I've seen either of you before. Maybe you're sensible enough to wear masks; I've never understood that. I suppose you weren't asking for money. You've piqued my curiosity. What is it?"

A short while later they'd explained their situation. Kayla looked thoughtful. _'Which helps humanity more? Cures for diseases only I can provide, or a doctor and trainer to these people? I believe in their cause. Why can't I continue my research there? Besides, it's best for Lauren.'_ She looked up. "I'll do it on two conditions. We make the appropriate changes in your lab space so that I can continue my research, and my sister becomes a student at your school." Kitty smiled. "Deal."

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A pattern had formed. Every so often she awoke, covered in blood from the intricately inflicted cuts. The pattern was precise and would have been beautiful in a sinister sort of way if they hadn't been carved into skin. As it was, they were horrifying yet miraculously not painful. Before she could take in her situation completely, she fell 'asleep' again. There was something that she had to do, it was urgent. But what? The room was sealed with no visible light source, but she could see. She always wore the black dress. The silk was unstained. It reminded her of something. She had no idea what. In fact, she had no memory whatsoever.

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Haha. The suspense is killing you isn't it? Sorry. I'll tell you who she is. Alyssicate. Who is that? Wait for the next chapter. Evil laughter Also, the Enigma is still out there seeking revenge. Somewhere, cameras and microphones are still recording. And, most interestingly, someone is possessed. Not telling where, why, or who. "More evil laughter.

(1) This is the third time I've mentioned her. Kudos to whomever figures out the forming pattern here.

Go on, press the review button. I'll answer any questions you've got and take your suggestions into consideration. Come on, you're dying to say something.


	12. The Long Awaited Explanation of Nearly E...

I'm so sorry. I really am. But I cannot bring myself to write out the entirety of the next twelve chapters or so as they are meant to be written. Maybe someday but right now. So what I'm going to do is explain what happens, and then feel no guilt writing the romantic vignettes that are all I think I wanted to write in the first place. Here goes.

Sariceia is in love with Kurt, and he with her, and if left to their own devices they'd be very happy. BUT, as always happens in these sorts of things, there are in fact several forces attempting to pull them apart.

As those of you with an aptitude for figuring out obscure plot structures might have guessed, Sari darling is possessed. Gasp. You see, way back when she and Kurt were in the circus together, she was practicing her first trapeze act. She fell. Who rescued her? Our favorite rescuer-er of damsels in distress, Kurt. By teleporting. For a brief moment let's ditch the comics and pretend that at this point he could teleport more than one person, and while we're at it let's ditch the laws of physics and pretend that if he teleported up to grab someone (lets say a falling purple fairy) he wouldn't land with the same velocity as she was falling with. So he teleports with her, she thanks him, everyone thinks no biggie. But while in the dimension that Kurt teleports to, whose name I once learned but have since forgotten, there lives a being who's psych is construed in such a way (for inexplicable reasons) as to force it to reside in the young Sariceia's mind. 'Cause this sort o' thing happens all the time in the Marvel universe. So it doesn't affect her much for quite some time, until it gets really homesick. In a desperate effort to maneuver her into finding Kurt and re-teleporting back home, in gives her a wanderlust, which is why she travels to Romania so often, she's subconsciously looking for him but thinking that she's looking for her birthparents. Now don't get me wrong she doesn't want to find them, but yes. Being the strong willed individual that she is Sariceia's subconsciousness fights this intruder, even when they are both attempting to accomplish the same goal (i.e. make Kurt fall in love with her/it) Because she does love him, but wants/needs to be free of the being thing first. However in a moment of weakness caused by guess who Enigma (whom I will explain in great depth in a moment) she succumbers to the being's will and goes to find Kurt. This is where we meet her.

Kurt is possessed. And now you're thinking 'sigh here we go another really terrible fanfic writer…' and while that may still hold true, it's not that bad. Enigma is actually manipulating everyone (see 'Enigma'). Her reasoning is: what would make Kurt and Sariceia happy? Each other. So do everything possible to keep them apart.

Margali's vengeance. As any good x-men fan would know (oh come on go to and do Kurt and Magik II's profiles…) Kurt used to be in love with Amanda, who used to call herself Jimaine and now calls herself Magik… not commenting on Marvel's character development with this one. The twisted part? They're foster brother and sister. Ew. Their mother, like any good mom, just wants her children to be happy…but together. Even though both are happy to be just friends, she's angry and so is unknowingly collaborating with Enigma in subtly influencing Kurt against Sariceia and sort of nudging him towards Jimaine. It fails of course.

But since this is me writing this, guess how it ends? Yeah, happy for all. Though not for a while. After the whole run-in with Enigma thing, Sariceia has no idea which of her feelings are truly hers and needs some time away from everyone for a while, which makes Kurt mad as he's finally figured out that he loves her, so they have a fight. And at this point she's no longer a mutant anyway, so she goes to college in California for a while. She and Kurt miss each other desperately but neither wants to back down. It's so touching it could be a songfic. Eventually he gives in and shows up at her door circa the same time that her power's mysteriously come back (an apology gift from enigma when she's coerced into being nice by Kayla) through a whole romantic scene that perhaps in a time of boredom I'll write out. They get engaged and are one of the mansion's ever-increasing number of lovebirds for a while. Yes I'm a sucker for these relationship things. After a while they get married and have several adorable children, who may or may not get a story about them depending on just how cute they are. Just kidding I mean on my time restrains, since by virtue of my creating the characters they are what I want them to be... wait a sec you mean they aren't real? sobs Moving on…

Enigma, and why you should hate and fear her:  
Basically the catalyst for all my plots. She's kind of like Phoenix only less powerful and has her own dimension place (it's like if we live in dimension 3, this is 3.5. it's very cool there, everyone is represented as essence-light-being things, hard to describe but fun). Driani messes with the spirit/soul of her avatar (the girl whose mutant ability and destiny is to become the focus point of the Enigma force, thus making her Enigma, kind of like Jean and Phoenix) in a bizarre plot that I confess to not fully thinking out before I posted it. How I'm representing souls and telepathy is just so complex right now even I don't want to deal with it… so yes. She vows to wreck havoc on Driani, but with style. Because instead of outright killing someone (which is always boring, even if you physically torture them for eons first) or going just half a step future and putting them into severe psychological pain, why not hurt everyone and anyone they are affiliated with? Hey, if you were an immortal and basically all powerful being with a grudge and time to kill, wouldn't you? Fine maybe you're a nice person and wouldn't but the important thing is that I'm not and I write this story so that's what 'igma's gonna do. Yeah. So aside from re-creating in Driani every phase of spirit that the vampiress has ever gone through plus a few from the avatar's own human past, the rest of the X-men are in for it.

the Kurt/Sariceia conflict described above

resurrects Silver Fox…sort of. Explanation to follow

accelerates Akkio's age to that of a sixteen year old a la Illyana and Belasco, upsetting and confusing Kitty since that's the second time someone she used to baby-sit for becomes one of her best friends.

un-hides the memories Dri's got of Stephen, whom she never really loved. Tell me you saw this one coming. He manipulated her mind into joining him as a vampire, and after that point she was stuck with him so it didn't matter. But she didn't know that, and now ironically it makes her happy since she no longer has any qualms whatsoever about loving Logan. But that's just the way Enigma works…

OTRA COSAS!

messes up a lot of people's mutant powers, as described soon enough. Basically she gives them extensions that aren't technically gene related but make enough sense for me, and as I may have mentioned this is my story

j

we think that silver fox is re-alive somehow, thanks to Enigma. This confuses Logan, who feels that well maybe he should go to her, and where does this put his relationship with Driani? But it's this other girl on whom Enigma's used an image inducer like spell. She's actually Kelly Clearriver, codename Grace, a Native American mutant gifted with extreme sense of balance. After the whole thing is sorted out she joins us on the junior team. As does Akiko, who has mutant powers like that of Sunfire, even though he's not her uncle by blood. No I don't care to explain that one for you thanks.

We also get a bunch of other fun new additions to the mansion's junior team, who DO have personalities honest! I worked really hard at not being like 'ooh, this is a cool mutant power, let's take another character from mold 2b and plop her in there'. So we've got Sita, who's from India. She controls snakes, in particular one boa constrictor with which, upon manifesting her powers, she accidentally forged a psi-link type thing and can as such communicate with it. It's very cool. When she, Caroline, and Mark (whom you've not met yet but will soon) follow the x-men into enigma's dimension Sita gains the ability to actually turn into a snake. Her codename will be something like Serpentine, I haven't decided completely yet. She comes from a very rich family, but her mother died a when she was young and her father was always very busy with his business so she grew up with very few boundaries. She's almost Caroline's antithesis, and Cari's very jealous of her for a while, then they become good friends. This gets a little dicey when Mark comes and both like him, making Cari very put out when he and Sita start dating, but eventually they decide to just be friends, thus giving us the adorable couples of Cari/Mark and Sita/Kyle. Mark is a popular but a pretty much average if outgoing guy, making him and Caroline the Mansion's only normal couple. He turns into "a giant green koush ball!" which he's very proud of. Actually he's poisonous, giving him the name Poison. Eventually he's able to retain his human form, with the help of, can you guess? Enigma. Because she's nice like that. I warned you, she's my solution to every plot hole. Kyle is pyrokinetic. He's a cool guy, but sadly he doesn't have much of a background story yet. I'm working on it. Ya see originally he was the same guy as Zap. Who is from Spain, mainly because I speak un poco de Espanola, and I absolutely adore his mutant powers. He has a combination of telekinesis and phasing, enabling him to call objects to him or 'zap' them across great distances. He's Jubilee's boyfriend, because I felt bad about completely forgetting her for whole chapters at a time. All of them go to the local high school which is NOT the same as in Evo. Because that would so mess up my story lines. And all is well in the land.

More coming soon because I want to just put this up already. Hope this made even just a little bit of sense. Feel free to review or email me at I absolutely promise to explain any questions.

NEXT: the whole, long, elaborate, overly well planned saga of Driani.


	13. Sequel to the Epilogue, The End Part II

Did I mention that it was Stephen who coerced Dri into doing that weird soul swap thing with enigma's avatar? Er well yes that was his fault. We really aren't supposed to like him much, if you haven't caught on yet.

deep breath okay. Driani. Didn't really want to be a vampire. Stephen was influencing her telepathically her whole life to get her to stay with him. Then he dies. So she's really confused, but doesn't tell anyone for fear of disturbing her tough vampire image.

THEN Archema comes into the picture. He's an evil dark wizard; named after the company my dad works for. I kid you not; it was just a good scary sounding name. His girlfriend was a vampiress named Calabrina (one of the demons from Dante's inferno which I read because of one of the x-men annuals in which Margali banishes Kurt there…it was a good book, right Angela? Moving on) who was killed. So he's getting ready to bring her back to life and then thinks, hey, why not bring back ALL dead vampires everywhere? So he does. Including Stephen, who seeks out Driani. This is really bad because now vampires are running amuck everywhere, do you have any idea how many have been killed since the beginning of time? A lot. And they're everywhere now. By forming a tense working relationship Stephen, Wolverine, and Vampira join together to seek out Archema and kill him, which would in turn kill all vampires everywhere forever. Because Stephen and Dri know that this would be for the best. Guess who helps them kill him? Enigma. Told you she solved all my problems. But first there's a couple of edgy moments where it's unsure which guy Dri wants to be with and, in one of her signature cruel and unfathomable parting gifts, Enigma manipulates Dri into saying some rather hurtful things to Logan. Why? So that I can have my cutsie 'I'm-so-sorry-I-love-you-so-much-etc.' scene. Aww. Yes, I alternate between 'thrilling' action sequences and semi-sheer fluff, no it's not intentional, and yes I like it this way. More questions? For god's sake review. Moving on. So NOW what? The whole vampire saga was really cool by the way. So we've got out real team consisting of Logan and Driani, Kurt and Sariceia, Kitty and Piotr, Storm, Rogue, and Rachel. Then you have the little fake team of wannabe- I mean, the New Mutant-esque group aptly codenamed Division 2. Clever, no? And this team has Caroline/Mystere, Sita/Serpentine, Mark/Poision (yes it's spelled that way and I like it), Kyle/as of yet no codename, Zap/as of yet has no real name, Jubilee/er Jubilee (who had a Kitty-esque 'Professor X is a jerk (1)' type whatdaya mean you're putting me with the X babies? Until she found out Zap was there… no complaints after that wink win.), Akiko/Solar Blaze, and Maria/Lady Laser. Have you met Maria? She was actually the first mutant I came up with and ironically one of the last you're going to meet. Her power is the ability to produce all manner of light forms, basically everything found in the electromagnetic spectrum. She's from Spain and speaks only Spanish, to the vast annoyance of everyone, for quite sometime. That would be because Rachel doesn't possess the finesse necessary to teach someone a language without transferring all of her own word associations. So eventually she and Maria go to Muir Island to learn that with Professor X, and then all is well. Anyone read Ranama ½? No? It's not that great though kind of funny, but there's this girl named, bizarrely, Shampoo. She doesn't speak, er, well for them its Chinese but for us American readers it's English, so she just skips around singing poorly phrased things like 'you I love!' This is what Maria does to Kyle for a while. It's amusing at first, until it isn't. Yeah. If I end up doing a fic on the Division 2 kids and their exploits that will definitely make it in. saaay…would you want me to do that? Want to let me know via review? Thanks. The other thing that would be there would be the Cari/Mark/Sita love triangle and its resolve, because that was just fun. Darlings what have I left out? Something is surely unexplained. Don't know what it is though. Sigh. So this is good bye to Redefinition…until I take it down for editings and fixings!

S, a.k.a E

(1) It's a back-issue thing. X-men essentials volume 3 I think. Could have been 4. anyway it was the time Professor X tried to bump Kitty down to the New Mutants and she got mad.


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